Length of time for pollination to occur

[HerbChambers]

As the title says, how longs does the pollination process take. If one were to brush pollen onto a female flower, how many days/hours would it take for the plant to begin producing seeds.

Asked another way, if just a couple branches are pollinated, when is it safe to assume pollination has occurred and the branch can be sprayed with with water to void any remaining pollen.

The current process is as follows.

1) Select branches for pollination and cover with plastic bag
2) Spray down plants with water
3) remove plastic bag
4) Pollinate Branch
5) Replace plastic Bag
6) Spray down plants again
7) wait 24 to 48 hours
8) Spray down plants with water
9) remove plastic bag
10) spray pollinated branches with water to void any remaining pollen
11) sit back and wait

Thanks!

 

[Illuminate]

First thing is the pistils wither and retract, then about a week or two later the bracts will appear full. Id wait a few days before spraying more so if bagging branches.

 

[brickweeder]

Clarke in MJ Botany says 15-20 mins for pollination to occur after a pollen grain lands on a pistil. I usually isolate and bag the plant except for the selected branch, pollinate the branch with a brush, wait 1-2 hours, then spray the branch thoroughly, remove the bag, spray the whole plant, then place back in the flowering chamber.

With freshly harvested pollen, I wait 1 hour before spraying. With refrigerated pollen, I wait 2. I usually repeat the pollination process a couple of times on the same branch to ensure a decent seed yield. So far, haven't been disappointed with this method. I also wait at least 30 days from the last pollination before the seeds are harvested.

 

[xavier7995]

I give it an hour or two. One thing that might help is to have pollen collection vs. impregnation happen at different times. I collect pollen and then wait another week or two until the females are nice balls of pistils before applying pollen. Read somewhere that you get a better harvest of seeds that way and it made sense to me.

 

[brickweeder]

...I collect pollen and then wait another week or two until the females are nice balls of pistils before applying pollen.

I do the same, I like to wait until at least week 3 of flowering before my 1st pollination so there are a decent amount of seed sites. If I start at week 3, I'll also pollinate in week 4 and maybe another in week 5 if i expect at least 30 more days before harvest.

 

[xavier7995]

We may be talking about the same time frame, takes a bit for pollen to drop after switching to flower, i mean give the females another week or two past when the males drop their load. It is really just based on when the ladies have a large amount of pistils showing, for me that is a week or two after males drop and it is around week 3 or 4 of flower. Then give them six weeks or so to finish.

 

[brickweeder]

Sounds like the same ballpark.

I've run into the opposite problem lately of not having the pollen soon enough because I've been making fem pollen from clones, and the time it takes to root a clone then reverse it is not as clean as a regular male going to flower. The timing to clone then reverse is inconsistent at best, but always takes longer than I planned.

For S1 fem pollen, I seem to be settling on taking the cutting 3-4 weeks prior to flowering. After 2-3 weeks, the cutting should take, and another week of growth before the silver application process (right when the clone donor is flipped). 3-4 weeks later, the fem pollen generally starts, right when the seed mother has some decent pistil clumping.

 

[PDX Dopesmoker]

It only takes a few seconds, you can put your pollen on and spray water right afterwards and you'll still get complete or nearly complete pollination of all of the viable calyxes (AKA marijuana pussies) that are on the flower you're putting pollen (AKA marijuana jizz from marijuana penises) on.

 

[HerbChambers]

Thanks all for the answers. Branches were left covered for about 18 hours after pollination and resprayed with water. Looks like seeds are fattening up nicely on the branches that were hit.

 

[Dog Star]

PDX is right... maybe miliseconds and then polen stays sticked.. or atleast some part
of it.. you can spray water promptly after you finish polination..