How do you collect Pollen?

[randude]

I have a male and a female in my bathroom under natural light. The male is dropping pollen now, and although I am told I am too late to pollenate this Big Bud female, I am just going to give it a try anyway. Hell, I paid like $10 each for the seeds I bought from AMS, so I would like to have some for a backup or something. Anyway, if the female does not make seeds I would still like to pollenate a flower or two in a couple of weeks when I start to flower my BB clones. What is the best way to collect and handle pollen? Should I just put down some white paper and hope some of it lands on it? Should I just cut the male top flowers off and store the whole thing in the freezer? Is all weed pollen yellow?
Any advice or links to advice are welcome. I am sure the window of opportunity of collecting this pollen is getting smaller by the day.

 

[JJScorpio]

Put the male in a room of its own. Whent the male starts dropping pollen take a film cannister and put it under the flowers and tap them lightly with a pen or something. Its also a good idea to put a piece of paper under the plant to catch pollen that falls at night and when you are tapping the flowers....

 

[randude]

Thanks JJ, you are a serious grower.

 

[Guest]

Since your male is dropping pollen now take an appropriate size paper bag and put it over a branch and gently tap.

You can transfer the pollen to what every you chose to store it in.

It's wise to do this in an area where pollen later will not transfer onto plants you do not wish to seed. Clean up thoroughly.

 

[SacredBreh]

I pretty much go with Northern Farmer.....

I pretty much go with Northern Farmer.....

I too start with a large paper bag and select several good producing branches on the male. I take a paper bag and put over the selected branches. Then bend them over and place snug twist ties at the opening around the main stem. It sounds like you have let the male pollinate the female already so not too much to worry about there.
Once the female is done flowering and producing those valuable seeds. Just chop the male down with the female and leave the bag on. Hang it up in a nice area with the bag still on. Once it is all dry, open the bag up over a glass table top or mirror. Tap the male bagged plant parts on the glass gently to get as much pollen but minimize the amount of plant material breaking off. Also, tap out the paper bag. Use a razor blade to collect all the pollen and plant material together. Then, take a new fine toothed comb and run it through the pile to remove the plant material. Do this a few times then collect the pollen back into the a pile and scrape it into a film container.
Since the male already dropped pollen in your grow area. You will have to clean it extremely well and disinfect the area, or it could pollinate your next grow. But if you clean really well there is not much chance of this.

If you do the same thing without fertilizing the females, just cut all the branches off the male that are not in the paper and it will continue to flower and not fertilize the females. Collect in the same way. Snug twist ties at the opening to the sack along the main stem and bend the top of the plant over will keep the pollen inside the bag and away from the females.

Hope this helps. I have done it many time with great success. Just don't squash the paper bag or the top can mold and if not fertilizing at that time will force pollen out of the bag with the air and fertilize the females.

Peace

 

[smokeymacpot]

i tapped the ripe flowers into a little pot.

why have you been told you cant polinate your plant? how far into flower is it? you can always polinate the lower buds that dont grow very big and leave them after youve harvested if theyre not ripe.

 

[Guest]

I used to make a big mess like most do....

NOw I cut off like 2-4 male flowers just as they are opening.....

finish drying then in an ashtray under a desk lamp....

once dry I remove the green parts with tweezers...

and ready to ramble....

Ive been doing it this way for several years....

 

[randude]

Thanks Sea and Sacred, good people.
I do keep my male in a different room, different floor. And since it is the bathroom with a sky light... Well, the bathroom is pretty clean and I am always washing my hands and stuff. I will keep the male and the hopefully pollenated female there until light looks to be a problem. Ironically those are the best looking plants I have right now. Reveging is an ugly process.

 

[hazy]

check out this thread, randude


http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=46076

 

[randude]

TY Hazy, damn good read.