Official Seed Harvest, Storing, Curing, ect. Thread

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


My Male top Bud:









Lower Branches of Male:



one of Females:







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?

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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.

On the topic of seed storage, the A#1 most important part is refrigeration. You can fuck up everything completely, do all the wrong stuff, and still get seeds to sprout.

6 or 7 years ago a friend of mine gave me a bag of seeds. It was in a plastic baggy, not a ziplock so it wasn't sealed. He didn't bother to remove all the plant matter so there was quite a bit of shit shake in the bag. Plus a piece of paper with the name of the strain on it.

I tossed it in the back of my fridge, grew seeds out of it for a couple years, and forgot about it. The last two years I've rediscovered it. The bag was never sealed, just waded up and tossed in. The shake hasn't molded but it doesn't look good. The seeds have shriveled a bit and are mottled with decaying plant matter and discolored. Sort of a grey/beige color. The paper label may have actually saved them, absorbing the moisture from the shake.

When I've stuck the seeds in moist dirt at 70 degrees F I've gotten a 60% germination rate. Compare this to another batch of seeds I made at the same time. Carefully removed them from the bracts making sure no plant matter contaminated them. Put them in a small plastic film cannister with a tightly sealed lid. I left them at room temperature for 2 or 3 years then refrigerated them. Guess how many germinated at 70 degrees F in moist soil? 0%. The temperature is the most important factor in seed preservation, as long as the seeds don't rot they will still sprout. Of course the desiccants, careful drying, removing the plant matter, are all important and will improve germination rates and greatly lengthen preservation time.

I roto-till my garden once or twice a year. I've got mustard, arugula, tomatoes, tomatillos, a bunch of weeds I recognize, sprouting all over the place. Far from where the mother plant grew. The reason they're able to germinate? The ground is cool most of the year, below 50 degrees F. I'd be surprised, even in the hottest part of summer, if it gets above 60 degrees F. The seeds must absorb some moisture from the ground during the winter but the cool earth is what preserves them, same as the refrigerator.

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)

therevverend said:

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.

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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








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????

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











END OF MY THEMA HERE, PLEASE USE LINK TO TALK FURTHER IF WANT here: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=1034&page=19

That works. A lot of times I'll cut the flowers right before they open and lay them out on newspaper. As they open they drop the dust and I can easily collect it from the paper.

Here's my thought on seed free harvest, lots of embient light, lots of equal spacing, and high oxygen concentration. I think this, will produce a seed free harvest, or I could be mistaken!

UnknownProphet said:

I know many people come here to learn so I decided to start this thread for some of those with experience to share with those looking for knowledge. I understand the basics of pollination, and there seem to be quit a few threads on that issue, but haven't found a thread on here which details the process after. Let alone specifics on things like storage or keeping viability up over the years. Tricks of the trade, techniques, preferences, suggestions, and more are welcome.

So for those who have had experience or if you just have any questions, then put them here.

I would like to start this also by opening a discussion on how you, or those you know, dry out seeds. I've done my research and found that many believe about a month or so of drying is necessary to increases germination rates, but what else helps?

Looking very forward to hearing back from any and all. Best wishes and karma all around.

ʇǝɥdoɹPuʍouʞuU*

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Thank you!

nobull56 said:

Time improves techniques, but some of us old farts are too hardheaded to change what worked in the ‘Olden days’.

With this disclaimer I’ll take a toke & start a ramble!

I do not worry about cleaning my seeded branches until EVERYTHING else is cleaned cured & put away. Then I take the well tagged branch (I use hanging tags when I pollinate & document Male, Female, Dates pollinated & ANYTHING else that matters,keeping tag on all the way) & hand roll the whole thing to fine shake, removing all stems. I start on a Kief screen (why waste anything) then move to a smooth tray (NOW; they use grading screens) for rolling the seeds away from the chaff. I clean the seeds two or three times, taking out all odd shaped & off color beans.

At this point (depending on the size of the run) I lightly sandpaper 10 to 100 seeds & test the germination rate (keeping some of the most vigorous to pot up). Ten plants can tell me that the cross is growing consistent or if it is mostly sports.

I think it is more important to have viable seeds as so many times I’ve bought seeds from ‘BIG NAMES’ only to not have them germinate or have only one or two pop. If I sell seeds that do not do what you want, I can trade you some thing else or we can talk it out. If they don’t grow, you’re PISSED!

By now I’m not worried about how dry they are & I bag them in ‘Snack’ baggies, writing the info on the bag (tag goes in bag also). I keep my seeds in a box (see Photos) & keep the box where the temperature changes very slowly (NOW; in refer or some kind of transformer golly dam-et) (probably much better, but moving them seams troublesome). It seams to me, that the most harmful thing to do to a seed (besides moisture) is let it think winter, summer, spring or fall have been around. Cold to warm is a major trigger to make a seed want to grow & if it sees that too much; the week seeds will give up & never grow into a strong phenotype, if at all.

Well I’ve ranted too much for one time. I’ll do the photos now, those that know me will recognize the box.

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That is Gorgeous