When do you paint females with pollen ?

[Owl Mirror]

I am curious to hear from those of you who are producers of seeds and/or breeders of Marijuana on the best practice when painting stored pollen to a female.

I have read various things from painting the first Preflowers to dusting buds after full growth has been achieved.

Is your method due to the amount of time needed for the seeds to fully mature?
Do Indica seeds take more or less time to mature than do Sativa seeds?

 

[Owl Mirror]

bump ~ still looking for any opinion

 

[orionsbelt]

Hi owl mirror,
I have read many of your posts.
I am no expert for sure. I prefer to clone but,
I Have collected pollen ahead of time. Then stored it in a moisture proof container in the freezer and applied it with a q-tip later.
I don't mix it with flower, And don't know if it makes a difference between indica and sativa. ( I have only grown indica). I just do it about 3 to 4 weeks after flip to 12/12 (small buds) When pollinated they continue to get bigger during flowering.Or with at least 4 weeks left to finish on autoflower strains.It doesn't seem to take much, just a brush with the q-tip within the next few days after pollination the pistils will show you visually they've been pollinated. I have read more time gives them more of that turtle shell look. This method produces seeds I have grown successfully.
But, There may be better ways. Hope that helps you.

Lovin' ICMag !

 

[resin_lung]

Hey owl, I'm by no means an expert but have had many successful seed crops. I dust my females around three weeks into flower. Sometimes four weeks. It takes around 4 weeks for seeds to ripen once the plants have been pollinated. If you know how long your females go then just hit them about 4-5 weeks before that. If you don't know then I'd go with 3 weeks into flower. That should give them plenty of time to ripen. Thats how I do it.

 

[Owl Mirror]

Thanks RL & OB, So as far as both you know, it takes 4 weeks to harvest viable seeds, regardless how long they stay on the plant? Do seeds continue to mature once the buds are picked?

The seeds can stay in the buds for the full eight weeks (if a 12 wk sativa) ?
My clone got pollinated and now I need to decide which buds to leave on the plant until the seeds are ripe. The clone should go another week or two before it's ready to harvest.

I also dusted a few of the preflowers on my Mazar but, haven't seen evidence of seeds yet.

 

[resin_lung]

I've heard others say a min of 3 weeks for viable seeds. I believe 4 weeks is standard. 5 weeks is probably better. Seeds wont become overripe.

They need to be on a living plant to ripen. They will not ripen on a picked bud.

I believe the seeds can stay on the plant for 8 weeks with no problems. The longer the better.

I've pollinated pre-flowers and gotten seeds before.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I plan on 40 days. These things are fecund. One small stem produced well over 100 seeds.

 

[Owl Mirror]

In another thread, I was told that dusting the preflowers is done to control how many of the flowers receive pollen as well as limiting the number of seeds produced. It was also said that by painting the preflowers, the seeds are ready well before the plant fully matures and they can be harvested prior to harvesting the buds. This leaves you with a majority of sensimilla bud.

I guess we will see how it works out as I painted a few of the preflowers on my Mazar.

 

[Owl Mirror]

I just read in Jorge Cervantes book 'Marijuana grow basics' that seeds are viable after 6 days and can be harvested any time after the sixth day. Anyone know how true this info is? Now it does say that it can take between 4-6 weeks for fully mature seeds and that the longer the seeds remain growing the better the germ rates.

I realize most people on this forum are more interested in seedless buds but, I sure would like an in-depth conversation on the process of seed-making.
I would also like to discuss whether seeded buds are more or less potent. Does the process of making seeds slow down or stop the growing process of the buds? Would dusting preflowers reduce the bud growth for the entire plant?

 

[resin_lung]

6 days? huh... Thats seems pretty fast to me. I wouldn't take them before 3 weeks.

I read that the high of seeded bud is different than non seeded bud but..... The writer of the piece said it was better. I wanna say it was DJ Short?

seeds require alot of the plants energy. I notice that buds are much smaller on heavily dusted plants. I imagine that what ever energy goes to the seeded preflowers is energy that is not gonna go to the buds, so I believe it would reduce bud size on the entire plant. How much? Probably not that much. a few seeded preflowers is nothing to a healthy plant.

 

[Owl Mirror]

6 days? huh... Thats seems pretty fast to me. I wouldn't take them before 3 weeks.

I read that the high of seeded bud is different than non seeded bud but..... The writer of the piece said it was better. I wanna say it was DJ Short?

seeds require alot of the plants energy. I notice that buds are much smaller on heavily dusted plants. I imagine that what ever energy goes to the seeded preflowers is energy that is not gonna go to the buds, so I believe it would reduce bud size on the entire plant. How much? Probably not that much. a few seeded preflowers is nothing to a healthy plant.

Thanks RL, I can see how energy might be diverted to the seed production.
I haven't seen any seed growth so far on the Mazar preflower sites.
The clone I had flowering definitely shows many seeds, too many in fact ;>}
The buds were about 2-3 weeks away from finishing so, hopefully I can still harvest some good buds while also collecting some seeds.
I will probably harvest the plant in a week and maybe leave some of the lower buds to mature another week or two so I get viable seeds for certain.

While this cross was an accident, I am interested to see if it may have improved this strain any.
'Master Kush x Skunk#1' x Nepali
If anything, maybe it will pass along a better branching trait or a faster finish time.

I am definitely interested to see the outcome between the Nepali and the Mazar.

 

[KnuckleHedd]

I go with 5 weeks for good seed. I pollinate during 4th week. There have been times that I havested the plant, but left that branch attached to the stalk so they could get more time. Nothing worse than "whiteys" in my seeds

 

[Owl Mirror]

Nothing worse than "whiteys" in my seeds

LOL I can appreciate that !

I guess picking/using "whiteys" would only come in to play if the plant by chance needed to come down.
Either because the plant got pollinated too late in the process or the plant had to be taken early.

I have to question whether the sentence in Jorge Cervantes book is a typo.
Then again, maybe the experience comes from harvested seeds from the field?
I wonder if the viability inside the seed comes on early but, the hard coating ensures the seed survives until next spring ?

 

[Hazy Lady]

Hi OM, It must be a typo, it has to mean 6 weeks. I am with FB, resin and knuckles, 5 weeks but 6 better still.
That cross could be a very lucky accident, Mazar and Nepalese strains are not a pole apart and could cross well, you could expect a fair hash plant.

 

[Owl Mirror]

Hi OM, It must be a typo, it has to mean 6 weeks. I am with FB, resin and knuckles, 5 weeks but 6 better still.
That cross could be a very lucky accident, Mazar and Nepalese strains are not a pole apart and could cross well, you could expect a fair hash plant.

Hi HL, yes that is what I was thinking too.
Both the Mazar and Nepalese strains have a similar growth pattern as well as being known to produce great Hash. I guess we will see what comes next spring ;>}

 

[whodair]

artificial insemination. its easy you cant go wrong really. and almost always get more seeds than you need. my seedbo days are over after once g13hazed open pollination. then used stored g13haze pollen to hit my heirloom sk2, diesel, ww, wr and kali.

 

[Owl Mirror]

artificial insemination. its easy you cant go wrong really. and almost always get more seeds than you need. my seedbo days are over after once g13hazed open pollination. then used stored g13haze pollen to hit my heirloom sk2, diesel, ww, wr and kali.

Hello whodair, I agree with the AI but, at what point did you find it best to paint the flowers? Preflowers, 4 weeks in to flowering , etc... ?

 

[Pinball Wizard]

3 weeks into flowering worked great for me. I just painted the lower one third popcorn bud sites = 300+ white widow seeds. (one plant)
I left the seeds in the buds during the dry/cure cycle too.

 

[Owl Mirror]

3 weeks into flowering worked great for me. I just painted the lower one third popcorn bud sites = 300+ white widow seeds. (one plant)
I left the seeds in the buds during the dry/cure cycle too.

Thanks PW, seems to be a consensus to apply the pollen to allow 5-6 weeks for the seeds to mature.
Now, does this 5-6 week for mature seeds go equally for Indica as well as Sativa ?
BTW, I just checked my Mazar (painted the preflowers) and as far as I can count there seems to be at least a dozen seed pods ;>}

Mazar x Nepali ~ maybe this is the start of something good ?

 

[whodair]

it was about 3 wk of 12/12. wanted to make sure i had 4 wks to go. and dried the seeds on the plant too