Cloning Feminized Autos and Reversing the Sex on the Clones with STS for Pollen

[Timj]

So, this is what your tent looks like when you have a near unlimited supply of free seeds, eh? LOL

I planted 20 of my offspring seeds from this experiment just to see if they were fertile seeds. 18 grew into nice plants. I really only have room for about 10 or 12 plants so I felt the only thing to do was..... plant more seeds. LOL

I have no idea what I am going to do with all these. LOL I have room in the tent for 6 large or 8 small plants. I have some room on my patio but with my HOA on their own little war against drugs they will probably stop my patio growing.

The back 2 rows are the first batch and were planted August 9th. The same day I harvested the seeds.

The rest were germed in paper towels (which I usually do not do) and were planted around August 21st through the 24th.

Should be a fun crop. I am curious to see what type of plants these will be. I had 3 or 4 different strains all blowing pollen to every other plant. Shotgun breeding. LOL

Another neat experiment was the test tube. It's a plastic tube with a hole in the bottom and in the lid. Tossed in a little Happy Frog, put a seed in and a little more Frog. Soak and set aside. Worked pretty neat. The seedling seems to have some nice roots. I'll let it go for a week or so and see what happens.

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Very nice @Ringodoggie. That's a good germination rate too. You'll have plenty to choose from for your next flowering cycle.

 

[brickweeder]

Great thread...thanks for doing this...good info on cloning autos too.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

CongaRats!!

 

[Ringodoggie]

I must say, this is the way I will go from now on. Every auto I grow gets a handful of clones taken for seeding. I did this Seed Supreme White Widow and it looks like another success story. I'll wait until I see pollen before shouting hooray but these are going pretty well, so far.

It's a shame the mother is doing so poorly.

 

[Ringodoggie]

There is so much pollen in my tent, the floor is yellow. LOL The plants are covered with it. I have been trying different methods of gathering it but nothing works great so far. Mostly been trying parchment paper in some way.

I have been pollinating the crap out of the mother but she is near her end and I am hoping to keep her going long enough to produce seeds. She never recovered from that leaf necrosis. It has been only 1 week since I started pollinating her and I think it takes about 4 or 5 weeks for seeds. Most of her hairs have turned brown already. Will a brown hair take pollen?

Also, last time I did this clone/sex reversal thing the clones reverted back to female and seeded themselves but I don't see any sign of that here. These girls are all balls. LOL I am hoping they revert and seed themselves. That is where I got most of my seeds the last time I did this.

Anyway another fun experiment and with a little luck, maybe some nice White Widow seeds.

Thanks again for the help along the way.

 

[gorilla ganja]

Most of her hairs have turned brown already. Will a brown hair take pollen?

No, too late for brown pistols to take pollen. Were there some white ones when you were pollinating them?
They turn brown within days of being pollinated. Best of luck with the project.

Peace GG

 

[Ringodoggie]

No, too late for brown pistols to take pollen. Were there some white ones when you were pollinating them?
They turn brown within days of being pollinated. Best of luck with the project.

Peace GG

Awesome, thanks for that info. Yes, they were mostly white a week ago before pollination. So, hopefully, they browned because they got pollinated. There are still some white hairs here and there so I am still shaking the clones over the mother a couple times a day.

Thanks again for that info. Never too old to learn something new.

Peace

 

[gorilla ganja]

I am still shaking the clones over the mother a couple times a day.

I think it is plenty pollinated. I would stop and let the seeds that are there mature. If you keep pollinating you will get plenty of immature ones as well and take precious energy from the others.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Save the pollen by drying and desiccating. Oven baked rice (at 170F for a few hours) will lower RH more than silica packets will.

Once dried, store in parchment paper or foil packets and freeze it.

This way you have instant access to pollen the next time you need it.

 

[Ringodoggie]

Do female plants that have been reversed with STS always revert back to female?

This is only my second experiment with STS. Last time the plants reversed back to female after a few weeks of no STS. These plants are still pouring out pollen like snow and I am not seeing and change back to female.

Thanks

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Over time the STS will all be reacted and the plant will revert to female.

 

[Timj]

Over time the STS will all be reacted and the plant will revert to female.

I'm using STS for the first time right now. I have always used Colloidal silver. Your suggesting that after we stop spraying the silver thiosulfate the donor plant reverts back to a female? I've never had that happen with Colloidal silver and isn't the STS doing exactly the same thing. Inhibiting the production of ethylene?

I found this article helpful while learning about making feminized seed.

A Novel Method for Stimulating Cannabis sativa L. Male Flowers from Female Plants

Female hemp plants are desired in floral hemp operations due to their higher cannabinoid contents. To produce feminized seeds, a critical step of inducing fertile male flowers on female plants is performed. In feminized seed production, freshly mixed STS (silver thiosulfate + sodium thiosulfate)...

www.mdpi.com

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

I'm using STS for the first time right now. I have always used Colloidal silver. Your suggesting that after we stop spraying the silver thiosulfate the donor plant reverts back to a female? I've never had that happen with Colloidal silver and isn't the STS doing exactly the same thing. Inhibiting the production of ethylene?

Yes, I'm stating the fact regarding silver and plants. Silver blocks the production of ethylene through a lockout process. Over time, because plant processes are continual, all of the silver will be locked up and unavailable.
At this point, the production of ethylene will resume heavily enough all male flower production will cease. Any new flowers begun at this point will be female.

The reason you don't see mention of this is because it happens late flower after pollination and during seed production, where nearly all flower production has already begun. Any flowers which did not finish forming as male will finish the last bits as female'ish as possible, though it would likely take a microscope to see most of it.

What you CAN see readily, when the timing is just right, is sterile male pollen being formed at the beginning of the reversal which switches to fertile male pollen being produced later as the STS or CS wears off.

CS lasts a MUCH lower span of time vs STS, and if you stop spraying CS early you can see this for yourself. Combining STS with CS as a finishing spray can help pinpoint this fertile/sterile timing in stubborn strains.

 

[Timj]

I've only used CS in the past 7 years and only reverse 2 or 3 plants a year. I have always used clones in the past. With only one exception. Maybe that's why I have never experienced a reversed plant switching back. I also threw out the pollen donors after my female had been pollinated so that also could be the reason I never saw one switch back. I'm curious, why would you keep the pollen donor alive after it has served it's purpose? Or even a branch if it has already served its purpose?

 

[Ringodoggie]

I'm curious, why would you keep the pollen donor alive after it has served it's purpose? Or even a branch if it has already served its purpose?

This is only my second time with STS but last time the VAST majority of the seeds came from the clones that I reversed, not the mother.

The clones have greatly decreased their pollen production the past couple days so hopefully, they will revert back now. Also, this time the donor looks like it is pretty full of seed pods. Still too early to tell but the signs are all good so far.

Thanks again

 

[Timj]

I don't like taking the chance of accidentally pollinating any of my flowering plants that I have growing in other tents. So once I see that the pistils are turning amber, a sign that they are pollinate. I remove the donor and toss it on the compost pile or into my worm bins. I still don't understand why you would keep plants that have been sprayed with STS or CS. You shouldn't consume them.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

I still don't understand why you would keep plants that have been sprayed with STS or CS. You shouldn't consume them.

Where does this thread say folks are keeping reversed plants? Apparently I missed it.

 

[Ringodoggie]

I kept mine (the plants I reversed) last time until harvest. I didn't smoke them but, like I said, the majority of the seeds came from the clones that were reversed, not the mother.

Maybe I have not made it clear what I did.

I took clones from a Fem/Auto plant.

Reversed those clones with STS

The clones had a mix of female and male flowers on them after the STS treatment so they pollinated themselves and that is where most of the seeds came from.

I smoked the mother and I did find a few seeds but not many.

 

[Timj]

I understand what your saying now. From the research I've done about STS it's not very stable if light gets to it and or your using a lower ratio. I guess I'll find out how it works soon enough. I did my first application 5 days ago and tomorrow will be my second and I'll flip my photo period plant then.

 

[Timj]

Where does this thread say folks are keeping reversed plants? Apparently I missed it.

I was a bit confused too. Post number 55 and post number 58 are two of the closest posts that he explains keeping the reversed plants as his mother plant did not produce many seeds.