Question: when is the best time to pollinate a female?

[sum420]

what is the best time to introduce female plants to male pollen?

ive been told that female plants should be pollinated for around 40 days to produce best quality seeds. so using that logic i would think the best time to pollinate would be exactly t-minus 40 days to harvest, but since ive never done it before that is all just my guess work.


i've read every single article that i found via searching the word pollinating on the search engine but couldnt get a definitive answer. Thanks in advance.

 

[deacon]

Hello,

I'm a new member as well - but in my experience the best time to pollinate is roughly ~30-40 days before your harvest time. I'd also selectively pollinate the lower branches as this lets you chop the majority of the plant and leave the seeds if they're not quite done. (You'll see them practically popping out of the calyxes). I'd also reccomend 3-4 weeks of drying after taking them from the plant because in my experience it increase germination rate.

 

[sum420]

nice thanks for the tips, never thought about drying the seeds out after... good thinking.

 

[supermanlives]

i do it several times for maximum seeds. once there is a good amount of flowers forming start pollinating

 

[wilbur]

seems to me that without reference to experts knowledge we can always fall back on common sense.

the plant flowers so that it can make seeds, right? that's good enuf for me. when you see a flower, pollinate it (artists paintbrush is good) and it will produce a seed.

I try to pollinate early while there are a minimum of flowers to accidently pollinate. as above this means that in a few weeks you can pick the ripe seeds from their husk while the rest of yr seedless plant grows on.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

hello when i grow from seed and have a real nice male i'll make F2's of the cross and maybe even some crosses. i'll allow the male to be in flower 10-14 days before i remove him to another erea this insure a good amount of balls to hand harvest pollen from. i hand harvest pollen onto a white envolope i place it into a dark drawer, each day i check the male and harvest as needed when balls have just opened. i put the envolope under the erea pollen will be from gently tap the ball to release pollen and then i cut ball off and let sit on envolope. after approx 1wk i've harvested more then enough pollen male is axed.

pollenating the desired females if ya dont want to waste the whole harvest pollenate all bud sites seen then only pollenate selected sites. i pollenate at 3 wks of flower from clone 4 wks from seed.

how i pollenate i remove desired females pollenate desired bud sites and place the pollenated plants into darkness for 24 hrs. 2 hrs before lights on next day i mist with a spray bottle plain PH'd water onto plants to kill any viable pollen left. i bring girls back into flower erea after they've dried i mist plants so any pollen left wont pollenate unwanted plants. after you pollenate the plants place them into darkness for 24 hrs this insures pollenation has taken. light and water kill pollen fast like on contact in nature viable pollenation accures mostely at night

after pollenation has taken allow 4-6 wks for seed to be viable longer the better more viable seed

i pollenate once at 3 wks in and have made like 45 crosses

a huge thx to brotha Jaws for enlighting me
enjoy but be carefull maken seed is addictive

 

[sum420]

wow maj.pothead, ty a lot of great info there!!! i never heard about keeping the ladies dark after pollination, i will defintely do that. makes sense that a 1000w hps bulb would dry out/kill pollen fairly quickly.


superman, and wilbur thank you guys for your input... superman, im not sure exactly what u mean by you "do it several times for maxium seeds". do you mean u pollinate the same plant, on several occasions?

wilbur, i generally follow the same rule about common sense but when u ask questions, u could end up with a grow mentor teaching u little tricks of the trade u would of never figured out otherwise.

so things that i have learned from this thread: dry out ur seeds for higher germination ratio, pollinate females as soon as they have decent bud sites developed. keep ur ladies in the dark after pollination, wait for the male sacks before collecting pollen and use ph'd water to make sure u dont spread pollen to where u dont want it.

thanks again for all the helpful information, happy growing to all : )

 

[Frozenguy]

When her parents aren't home..

HEEEYYYYY OHHHHHHHH

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

When her parents aren't home..

HEEEYYYYY OHHHHHHHH

that was a good one!

 

[exploziv]

you got your answers, but you may learn more reading this thread:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=140233