First Grow

[LEDSmoke]

Hello everyone! This is my first ever grow. It has been a wonderful learning experience by far. I ended up getting 2 males out of 3 plants but that's OK. Just started my 12/12 on the 9th under an 8 bulb floro system. The girl is bagseed and the male is Starburst.

My plan is to pollinate my female on a single bud site to try and get tighter node spacing on the next set.
How long will it take for the male to begin distributing pollen?

Female:


Male:

 

[thal]

You should have pollen soon. I haven't done any intentional breeding but I've had friends miss sex males and they dropped pollen around the 3 week mark. I suppose it could differ between strains too.

Are you flowering these under the same bulb setup? If so I think you are likely to pollinate your entire plant, and not just one bud site.

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

Hey man nice work on your first grow. I really don't understand how pollinating a single bud site will give you tighter nodes. You need to isolate the male from the females or you will seed over your entire crop. If the male has balls it is time to get him out of there. A cfl or two should be plenty to get him to sperm. Looks like it will be tough to lay him on his side to collect pollen. You'll notice the balls will begin to open and will leave yellow pollen on the leaves below. Put some cardboard down and shake the entire plant over it. Scrape up the pollen and collect it in a jar and add some uncooked rice to it. Store in a cool, dry place...not the fridge.

You can paint this pollen on female pistils with a small paintbrush. Wait 24hrs and spray with H2o. Female is now ready to go back and hang with the other girls.

As far as your bagseed females are concerned they very well could turn into hermies, seed out and be completely worthless. Or you could be the next ChemDawg and have a killer strain on your hands. Don't blow your entire load on the bagseed plants. Save some of the pollen for a lady in the future.

 

[thal]

I think TS is trying to pollinate a bud site so that he can get seeds for a second grow, and ideally one of the seeds will have the tighter nodal spacing of the father.

 

[LEDSmoke]

I think TS is trying to pollinate a bud site so that he can get seeds for a second grow, and ideally one of the seeds will have the tighter nodal spacing of the father.

BINGO! Let me clarify. the t5 now has 75% warm bulbs with 25% blue. The male is no longer in the room but outside where it is still maturing. Soon I'm going to chop the branches and put them in zip lock bags where the pollen will accumulate. From here I'll use a makeup brush and pollinate a single bud site. I would like the next generation to have the tight node spacing like you said and ideally create my own strain just for fun.

 

[Adze]

LEDSmoke,
If you put the branches in zip lock bag they will likely mold. Better to put them in water leaning over a sheet of glass. That will make it easy to collect the pollen. There are a number of good posts here about pollen collection, check them out. Best luck.

 

[LEDSmoke]

Update: I'm now about a month into flowering. I have some slight problems with leaf discoloration on the bottom leaves. I can not for the life of me figure it out. It doesn't look to be nutrient problems.

Leaves:


Plant:

 

[LEDSmoke]

Messed up the other pictures

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

Losing some of the older bottom leaves is perfectly normal. A pic of the entire plant gives us a better idea of what we are looking at. It can also be a sign that you may need some N, P, or K. Are your plants generally a dark green color?

 

[LEDSmoke]

The leaves are extremely dark green with red in the middle where the leaves attach.

 

[LEDSmoke]

Update!!
I'm about a month in now. Decided to stop using t5's as it is going slow and I'm making a trip out to the west coast in about 6 weeks. Hoping they're done by then!

 

[CasioCalculator]

So you put them outside now? I've been wanting to throw some plants outside and let them finish up under the sun. I'll be looking out for the update.

 

[LEDSmoke]

only cause I have t5's. Maybe if I had done Scrog then I would have left it. Nothing will out perform the sun I feel. Since it has been outside for 3 days I've noticed my buds becoming denser and I now have an aroma!! It has had no smell until I put it outside. I would love to upgrade to some HPS bulbs but I'm a bit scared to run electrical wiring. =/

 

[LEDSmoke]

Here's a couple of my little ones outside. Got a purple haired one surprisingly enough.

Purple haired:

Here's the big girl. Hoping for 3 Oz form her. Just got a budshot, hoping for 2 weeks until chop. Sorry for the blur, I'll take another picture soon.

 

[Mt. Goat]

That big bud's lookin great, nice job!

 

[LEDSmoke]

thank ya thank ya