STS Treatment for Feminized Seeds

[Henbud]

I have been having sporadic results as some strains produce staminate flowers that will not release pollen. and others release copius amounts. The solution is .5 gram silver nitrate stirred into 500ml distilled water and 2.5 grams sodium thiosulfate (anhydrous) stirred into 500ml distilled water. The silver nitrate solution (A) is then mixed into the sodium thiosulfate solution (B) while stirring rapidly. The resulting blend is stock silver thiosulfate solution (STS).
This stock solution is then diluted at a ratio of 1:9 to make a working solution. For example, 100ml of stock STS is added to 900ml of distilled water. This is then sprayed on select female plants.

I have sprayed some plants only onceand others twice and still see the same sporadic results depending on the strain.

Does anyone have suggestions on getting any or all strains to produce staminate flowers that will consistently release pollen?

 

[stoned-trout]

they don't always release..you have to manually open some and use the pollen...yeehaw

 

[Woz_from_Oz]

I have been trying for some time to produce male flowers on my females (C99s) with virtually no success. I have used both CS and STS.
One of the problems is how often do you spray? Once or twice - it doesn't seem enough. Plenty of formulas but not much on frequency of application. With both the CS and STS I sprayed for 5 days prior to switching. There was some leaf twisting and withering but the plants recovered ok.
I ran out of bottled CS (It is expensive to buy here) and that plant continued to be a female. After about 5 weeks the STS treated plant showed a few male flowers but they didn't develop and fell off. I didn't keep them.
I wonder if I mixed the chemicals correctly. Mixing them together I got a white cloudy solution which then cleared to a dark clear solution. Does that seem correct or did the compound breakdown to silver and for a colloidial silver solution? I think I will have another go at STS later.
Currently I am using GA3 Gibberellic Acid on a Rosetta Stone and stressing it out with light stress at the same time. Three weeks in and I have a very stressed plant but so far no bananas!

 

[QualityFirst420]

GA3

 

[IntelliGeneS]

Ag industry use of STS for ethylene blocking is typically every 3-5 days for several weeks. Keep in mind that this isn't specific to Cannabis, but it can be a general starting point. The OPs working solution concentration of 500ppm STS is within the 300-500ppm range generally recommended since the 1980s. STS is known to cause stunting and slow growth in general, so achieving the inhibition of ethylene must be balanced against adverse effects on growth (i.e. if the plant is growing very slowly, then so are the male flowers).

CS could probably be applied every day to achieve the same effectiveness, since it is quickly bound and drastically less mobile than STS after treatment. If you have the ability to generate your own CS, this might work, but is probably not cost effective under any circumstances.

Likewise, direct application of GA3 is probably not cost effective for the purpose stated.

 

[Siever]

I have been trying for some time to produce male flowers on my females (C99s) with virtually no success. I have used both CS and STS.
One of the problems is how often do you spray? Once or twice - it doesn't seem enough. Plenty of formulas but not much on frequency of application. With both the CS and STS I sprayed for 5 days prior to switching. There was some leaf twisting and withering but the plants recovered ok.
I ran out of bottled CS (It is expensive to buy here) and that plant continued to be a female. After about 5 weeks the STS treated plant showed a few male flowers but they didn't develop and fell off. I didn't keep them.
I wonder if I mixed the chemicals correctly. Mixing them together I got a white cloudy solution which then cleared to a dark clear solution. Does that seem correct or did the compound breakdown to silver and for a colloidial silver solution? I think I will have another go at STS later.
Currently I am using GA3 Gibberellic Acid on a Rosetta Stone and stressing it out with light stress at the same time. Three weeks in and I have a very stressed plant but so far no bananas!

You heave to use CS from 12/12 onwards 'till you have male flowers.
At least so goes the theory. I'm doing this right now & I only have female flowers developping(the very first calyxes), 'though I've seen pictures on the net with female flowers with just a few male flowers in them. I hope that's where I'm going. If this fails, I think I'm going to GA3.

Siever

 

[stoned-trout]

making CS is cheap and cost effective don't know why anyone would say otherwise.. I have a cs generator.. everything but the silver is easy and cheap......after initial purchase all you pay for is distilled water and electricity..cheap silver colloidalsilver-supply.com...yeehaw..was the best price last silver wire purchase...

 

[IntelliGeneS]

making CS is cheap and cost effective don't know why anyone would say otherwise.. I have a cs generator.. everything but the silver is easy and cheap......after initial purchase all you pay for is distilled water and electricity..cheap silver colloidalsilver-supply.com...yeehaw..was the best price last silver wire purchase...

If it works for you, great! It's all relative, of course. There is a reason why CS is not used outside of small application in Cannabis, and that reason is that STS or other commercially available ethylene inhibitor treatments work out to be more cost effective for industry use, which is often large-scale and must account for labor costs. For a small, black-or-grey market home grow where constructing a CS generator isn't difficult and might even be preferable to obtaining STS component chemicals, and the much higher treatment frequency isn't a problem, CS works just fine. You mentioned yourself that "everything but the silver is easy and cheap," which is not exactly an argument for cost-effectiveness. Personally I'd rather pay a chemical manufacturer who can obtain silver sources at scale to reduce the unit costs I'm bearing and also guarantee purity and concentration standards to mitigate the risk of the treatments working less effectively. It's a choice to be made by each grower, and none of the choices are wrong (except GA3... studies overall show large amounts of stress effects from GA3 treatment, which may cause sex reversal due to hermaphroditism but this is absolutely not the goal when trying to reverse a female Cannabis plant.)

Back to the OP's question, I'd like to second stoned-trout's remarks about female staminate flowers sometimes having some issues with opening and shedding pollen. One strategy to deal with this is to remove the flowers, pull out the stamens, and let them desiccate in a dry location to allow the pollen to shed (for instance, on a glass surface for easier collection). If done correctly, this can also prepare the pollen for longer-term storage (usually requires additional desiccation before and during cold storage).