Collecting, Storing, and Mailing Pollen

[BakedBandit]

About to pop some seeds didn't gen first time in a long time. Hoping to find a good male or two to practice collecting pollen from so when I find something's I'm really excited about I know what I'm doing with it. Thanks for the information here all.

 

[DenverJim]

What I’ve learned about pollin storage

What I’ve learned about pollin storage

1 I don’t pollinate with pure pollin
2 store with 1 part pollin 9 flower
3 bake flower for 30 min to remove moisture. Then store in store in air tight jar
4 I collect pollin by pulling unopened male calyx off and put in small glass dish. This can take 1 to two weeks.
5 sift with 110 micron screen. Add flower and mix. Store in 8 dram medicine bottles. Then deep freeze @ -17 F.
6 I have also used the paper packet method. Keeps pollin viable longer.
7 I have pollin that was stored in a regular freezer since ‘14 that is semi viable.
8 do not thaw and freeze. Learned this from Verdant Green.
9 Take container from freezer and put some in a different container. Apply with paint brush
10 I’ve had problems with the paint brush method. I noticed this year that the bristles would stick together. I washed with iso. Then I noticed that sometimes I would get a lot of seeds on the bottom of the branch. Since I start at the bottom of the branch I figured that the resin was sticking to the brush rather than the plant. I will try using air to disperse next year
11 this is just like cloning. Do it and eventually it will work. Took me over a year of continuous cloning to get it. I learned one thing from the grodan rep. Use thick stems with a short cutting and few leaves.
I didn’t edit. Final thought pay attention to everything your brain will then guide your actions. Works for me.

 

[Bigbruce]

I have a mixed bag of seeds from a trip to Jamaica. My favorite pheno is from a purple Sativa hybrid, my question is, if the females turned purple when budding will the males as well, I have to sprout a bunch looking for the needle in a haystack so I want to make sure I am pulling the right genetics to collect pollen from.

 

[White Beard]

Not having much luck looking for sifting screens in micron sizes, they seem to be mostly sold by mesh size...80- and 120-micron has been mentioned - what mesh sizes would these be?

Also: steel? bronze? copper?

Just looking for a little disambiguation, please. TIA!

 

[White Beard]

Sorry, blew the juggling act...post is below, with pic

 

[White Beard]

Was thinking that snipping each ball-laden branch would make for easier collection, if you could keep them alive long enough...so I found these: they’re called floral water tubes, they come in sizes, they’re reusable, and they cost pennies....

 

[LostTribe]

Male Bloom Revegging?

Male Bloom Revegging?

Anybody successfully taken a pollenating male cutting limb and rooted and revegged it??

 

[PDX Dopesmoker]

Good thread, I should have read it before I attempted to collect and store pollen and ended up with a container filled with moldy goo two weeks later instead.

 

[romanoweed]

Please help ,


Im having a loong flowering Strain , somewher between 14 and 20 weeker Sativa, wich i wanna open pollinate. I Have 2 Males, of wich one is ALREADY STARTING POLLINATING slightly.. i saw dust coming out.. But my FEMALES HAVENT EVEN DEVELOPED SIDEBRANCHES, JUST LEAFES...


WILL MALE MAKE POLLENSACKS LONGER NOW? Or not? How many Sacks more, and how Long you think it will do that? Again, Males and Females are same Strain, so actually males shouldnt come to early i suggest... but you never know.


Have only photo of females 2 weeks earlier taken, but i place a Male-Photo that Looks similar


Similar Male to mine:

Females (the ones most behind right outed as males 2 weeks later, or call it now... but that shows how my females look.. only Leaves) :

Please Help, These are highly wanted genetics.. Can Males come to early? or is this unlikely to happen..?

 

[PDX Dopesmoker]

That male will continue to produce pollen for a couple months if you keep it alive long enough.

 

[I wood]

Anybody successfully taken a pollenating male cutting limb and rooted and revegged it??

Yes, had to do that on a tom hill haze male last fall one of five got overlooked. I didnt have high hopes but it went back into veg pretty easily.

 

[romanoweed]

.

Please help ,


Im having a loong flowering Strain , somewher between 14 and 20 weeker Sativa, wich i wanna open pollinate. I Have 2 Males, of wich one is ALREADY STARTING POLLINATING slightly.. i saw dust coming out.. But my FEMALES HAVENT EVEN DEVELOPED SIDEBRANCHES, JUST LEAFES...


WILL MALE MAKE POLLENSACKS LONGER NOW? Or not? How many Sacks more, and how Long you think it will do that? Again, Males and Females are same Strain, so actually males shouldnt come to early i suggest... but you never know.


Have only photo of females 2 weeks earlier taken, but i place a Male-Photo that Looks similar


Similar Male to mine: View Image


Females (the ones most behind right outed as males 2 weeks later, or call it now... but that shows how my females look.. only Leaves) :
View Image


Please Help, These are highly wanted genetics.. Can Males come to early? or is this unlikely to happen..?

Simply collect the pollen of both males and hit up your girls when they're ready!

Yes, but they are like bammbo-thin, i dont know if new Pollensacks Reform as thin as they look, and due to dooing it first time, i dont wanna risk my collected Pollen ...Leafing Stems behind, wich dont rebuild Sacks 2nd Time and leafe emptyhanded...


Can someone confirm that a Landrace 20 Weeker Sativa wouldnt show such strange behaviour and come to early?
Will there be more Sacks later? This is crutial when collecting the few Pollen. I with my Artistbrush cant pollinate so much Plants, as Nature can , i suggest (i have a couple other Females in other Spot waiting for this Pollen i talk about here).
Where do you see more Risk? Couldnt i actually just let the Male savely doo its Thing..?
So will there form more Pollensacks for that after i empty the current Pollsacks???? Thanx Mohadib , and all others

You have to collect pollen the plant dies after it sheds all of it.

Are you really 100 Percent shure? i Kind of remind seeing Males making new Pollensacks after the initial ones, but i cant remember right..

I wouldn't bother with it if I wasn't.

I have heard of males being revegged but have never pulled it off myself.

1. It's normal for males to flower a little earlier than their female counterparts. That doesn't mean there can't be males that flower too early for the present females though.



2. Males also flower over a certain period of time in which they keep producing pollensacks. Depending on the specific male, this takes between 1,5 and 3 weeks, sometimes even longer.

I have no personal experience with long flowering sativa males, so I don't know how long their flowering-cycle might be - probably even longer.


3. If your male is growing indoors, you can easily collect it's pollen during the whole flowering-cycle by using a petri dish (or whatever you want to use to catch the pollen) and something to tap on the open pollen sacks. You don't have to cut off any branches.
When I do this, I collect pollen once or twice a day. The pollen can be stored in the fridge.

Yes Mohadib. Thats exactly the Problem, my Males stand outdoors, no Greenhouse... Otherwise i would have gone shurely for the collecting-everyday-Day-by-slight-Shake-while-hold-alife-Method. Now i have to decide between collecting everyday, therefore probably gather MORE Amount of rebuilding Pollen in 3 Weeks, but risking loss trough a certain Windyness at my Place aswell trough rainy Days (and it Looks like some eventual Raindays ahead), or if i should just cut the Branch of and savely collect Pollen at Home (Waterglass-Method)


Not to confuse: since you say some Males DEFINITELY CAN COME TO EARLY, im guessing thats one of them. Just doubling the 3 Weeks makes 6 Weeks of possible Sativa-Male-Pollination (my 16 Weeker Sativa has double of 8 Weeks flower) , and i dont think in 6 Weeks i have any female Flower ready.
Im now just trying to find the Method wich gathers more Pollen, since it s a very thin Male, aswell as my other Male and i have much Plants to pollinate... I will use Flour to Mix it up/dilute it, but after Storage, cause i heard it can introduce Moisture in Storage.


I post a Picture of MY Male tonight, and probably one can guess whats better
But im almost certain i will go into harvesting. I already read everything about collecting/storing. Thanx Mohadib again for your 3-Weeks-maximum-Indica-Anwser

If the meristem is still clusters of pods then pollen is yet to come.

If you see the tip and it ends in a single pod that's the last flower to shed pollen on that branch.

So here are the Pictures of MY Male Plants i took today:


My Male top Bud:
View Image


View Image


View Image


Lower Branches of Male:
View Image


one of Females:


View Image




Im shure i have to collect The Pollen now, cause i learned some Bramches might still develop, but it doesent look like there is so much to come. I still counted 20 mini Pollen-Sacks on the Top cola (wich are of the size of a third of Ripe Sacks) , aswell as 10 Mini-Sacks on the Lower Branches. 30 Sacks are Ripe.


I collected what fell out of the already opened Sacks, and its basically nothing, this is hard Challenge with such a tiny Male,, So i thought why not take my Plant Home WITHIN THE SOIL , place at Window, with abusly very low Light.. This way i can collect The 30 Ripe Sacks, but hopefully the 20 unripe at Topcola, aswell 10 unripe at lower-Branche will all eventually develop.


What you think, if i cut the Top, and place in Water , would the unripe Sacks become bigger/develop untill ready? I dont think so , or?
Thats why i will take this Male home within the Soil tonight,, And get the most Amount hopefully
Thanx

What you think, if i cut the Top, and place in Water , would the unripe Sacks become bigger/develop untill ready? I dont think so , or?

No once a male tosses it's pollen that's it. Very hard to clone or regenerate, or get it to re-flower. Once they enter senescence that's it.

You know it's rough when you're counting pollen sacks. Ouch! Unless this strain is really important and you don't have other seeds, I'd probably ditch it. A real problem I see is that your male is flowering a long time before your female's ready. It's a characteristic of a few strains I've seen, a couple of them were great, but most of the time it's a sign of a dud male. The early males often have a hempy auto-flower type gene which is a bad trait.

I know it's exciting to set your seeds and get your own varieties going so I don't want to discourage you too much. If you're able to squeeze out some pollen be sure to keep it dry and refrigerated. Desiccant helps but isn't necessary as long as the pollen is dry.

One thing I've done is pick the individual male flowers as they open but before they release their pollen. Put them in an envelope or a paper bag. Don't use a plastic bag because it traps moisture which is the ultimate enemy of pollen. It's much easier to extract the pollen from the individual flowers then to try to shake the plant, especially with such a small amount. Just one male flower will be enough to make 20 or 30 seeds.

Thereverend :
I wont let the oportunity go to reproduce it now. I can decide that later, but i get what you wanna say: it could be a bad Sign.. I also dont know the Strain. They say ist pure Thai, but somehow i doubt.. but again to Thematic: i will do everything to get the most posssible Pollen, since i have to pollinate muuuuuch more plants, than shown. Equally to a total Amount of 3 FULLY grown Plants, (not like americans doo, this Monsters, but 3 normally fullgrown Plants)

One thing I've done is pick the individual male flowers as they open but before they release their pollen. Put them in an envelope or a paper bag. Don't use a plastic bag because it traps moisture which is the ultimate enemy of pollen. It's much easier to extract the pollen from the individual flowers then to try to shake the plant, especially with such a small amount. Just one male flower will be enough to make 20 or 30 seeds.

Would you then store the MAle-Flowers as Sacks, and when needed later squeeze the Pollen out?? dont get it so exactly


But, will the plant survive at my Window, low light Window, IN SOIL and finish mini Pollensacks?? If not i could place it back outside in sun..

So, i took my whole Plant at Home, within it s Soil.. hahah


View Image


View Image


But im deciding between two Options now:


1: Shake the Plant onto the Brown Paper i already installed. Pro: when storing, i dont have any Plant Material. Contra: I will have to place new Paper atleast 4 Times due to having to avoid warmth(and have to cool the Shaked Poll.), and there is such small Amout of Sativa -Pollen... So i will have Problems in Scratching it together. Therefore i loose much.




2: Cut the Sacks, when ripe , and store it as whole Sacks. Pro, i dont loose any Pollen due to Problems in Scratching it together first, but the Pollensacks contain Moisture, and Moisture could kill my Pollen WHEN planned a NECESSARY 3-Month STORAGE.


So Wich Method would give more Pollen?
Help fast, its fullon going now. Wich Method would give more Pollen
Thanx

And if cutting the whole Sacks: better wait untill they just opened, or before they are just about to open????

 

[romanoweed]

So my solution: Tilt the Plant Abit and Wrap a tighter smaller Paper around

After that take Paper away, and when reusing/thawing put Flour on the Paper, and mix it with a Artist Brush like mixing Colors on a Pallete, softly. Amen

 

[romanoweed]

Allright, it turns out, i was to scared there is to less Pollen from this Male..
Just want to show you this little Sativa Male-Top produces realy nice Amount of Pollen:
Thats the Pollen wich falls every 3 Days:

And also the Decision to take The Plant Home despite the disturbing Bycicle-Ride trough my Hometown seems totally worth it. There seems really to not needed much Direct Sunlight, just a place at Window and all the undevelloped 1/3 Sized Pollens at the Top are developping to Maturity. I doubt this would have made it if i chopped the Plant early on..

Here a Pic in its currrent State: consider many opened Sacks are already fallen to the Paper, this are the last remayning ex- 1/3 Sized Pollensacks from the Top, now nearly ready:

Will probably take 1,5 Weeks until all Pollens are collected.

So conclusin: even if you have a 15 Weeker, or so Sativa-Male, when properly collected there isnt at all just a thin Film, ateast here. But it seems an very important Decision to not Cut it early in my Case. I just guess i would have shurely lost the Half Amount

 

[Im'One]

My taskenti was cut when the pods first started opening, yet many are falling to the paper without opening. Did I cut too early? I had females in the room and wanted him outta there.

 

[aridbud]

Customer asked me- need opinion

Customer asked me- need opinion

So, a customer emailed us regarding gathering pollen.

There's many ways to do so. What we do is use flour 2:1 ratio of pollen then refrigerate after a few days. Been working great for decades.

Back to the customer- she gathered pollen in a snack baggie, put in a bit of flour then left it on her desk at room temperature for about 10-12 days. She asked if it was still viable as she's MS MMJ patient and can't afford to purchase from dispensary.

I'm thinking yes, but may have less effect being left at room temperature. Didn't ask her if it was in direct sunlight.

Opinions, expressions are welcome. Suggested she refrigerate, but will it be ok?

Thanks for those with the expertise chiming in.

ab

 

[MintyMick]

So, a customer emailed us regarding gathering pollen.

There's many ways to do so. What we do is use flour 2:1 ratio of pollen then refrigerate after a few days. Been working great for decades.

Back to the customer- she gathered pollen in a snack baggie, put in a bit of flour then left it on her desk at room temperature for about 10-12 days. She asked if it was still viable as she's MS MMJ patient and can't afford to purchase from dispensary.

I'm thinking yes, but may have less effect being left at room temperature. Didn't ask her if it was in direct sunlight.

Opinions, expressions are welcome. Suggested she refrigerate, but will it be ok?

Thanks for those with the expertise chiming in.

ab

I’m not an expert, but I’ve been storing pollen for about 6 years with only one fuck up similar to your patient’s “Oh shit - I forgot and left it out” moment. I posted it here because I didn’t see this thread first...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=365264

 

[romanoweed]

Ok, short last Update.
I have to correct abit: the male Plant live bit longer than i thought, my conclusion was to fast. here this how he looked today (THIS SHOWES NEW BRANCHES FORMED):

As you can see, there is still Growth, or is it not..? I found out it is crutial to look on Growth, but its heavy to determine if there is, or not. And if i could determine it would be heavy to predict how Long it still lives on. Still, i learned that i rememberd it rather right, that there IS substential growth later, and Plants develop while fullon Pollinating. So is now 5 weeks, probably still 3 weeks ahead(some mini pollensacks visible)..


And my females, well they started flowering earlier than i thought, showing some 3, 4 Hairs (only not the late pheno)!


And, i also learned that Males arent ever the first to Show Sex, noo, i found 2 more Males yesterday! Looks, like This male was only the earliest....!


So, i will take away this early male away, due to unnessecairy Neighbours watching today, so i wont be able to Show how Long it lived. But all i wantde to say is, if you have a very early male, its very hard to know how Long it will flower, but it most probably will continou growth substencially(look the completely neformed Branches in this new Pictures)! And yeah, it Looks like still may male is quiet early, and i COULD imagine it to been to early (female plants Show 3,4 Hairs, not soooo exiting yet), and would i not have had other males showing yesterday Sex, i would still have been very early! So, i would do it the same next time !!!! By

 

[Nexus7]

So should I thaw the frozen pollen prior to use or just use it straight out of the freezer?

 

[I wood]

So should I thaw the frozen pollen prior to use or just use it straight out of the freezer?

I would think with the small volume and low water content it would thaw before you could use it anyways, like as soon as air reaches it.
The exception would be if stored in a glass container. Then i would wait for contain to reach room temp before opening to prevent condensation on glass wetting pollen. This would matter more if planning on refreezing for later use. Small single use vials are my way to avoid this problem.