I have 3 plants for personl use. Mainly for my wife who has back pain. I was given non femanized seeds from a friend of a friend. If i have one or two males and one or two turn out to be females should I pull the male or does it matter since they are all the same strain? It would be nice to have more seeds as well as some buds if it works out that way. Why should I pull the male if I have one? Will it detract from the females? Would it alter the strain? Maybe I will try a different strain next year would next years plants be affected?
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First grow with nonfemanized seeds
- Thread starter garyw
- Start date
MrBungle
Active member
Leaving a male in with females will decrease yield and potency.. because once the female is pollinated, it puts forth all of its efforts towards making seeds.. She no longer needs to bulk up, or create trichomes to capture the pollen, because that mission has been accomplished....
The trade off is... you'll probably still get high from the weed, you won't have as much for this round, but you'll have seeds for future runs where you can cull males without a thought about it....
The other option is to cull the male anyways and clone the females... and continue to clone the same female over and over.... That depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go!
The trade off is... you'll probably still get high from the weed, you won't have as much for this round, but you'll have seeds for future runs where you can cull males without a thought about it....
The other option is to cull the male anyways and clone the females... and continue to clone the same female over and over.... That depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go!
If the males shed pollen then the buds will be full of seeds. Best to pull the males as soon as you spot pollen sacs, so that you get true seedless bud.
That said, most of what I grow winds up with seeded buds because I tend to miss the odd hidden or late-maturing male plant, on account of not being able to visit the grow site often enough. Just got done toking on some of that seeded bud, and I got no complaints about potency at all.
That said, most of what I grow winds up with seeded buds because I tend to miss the odd hidden or late-maturing male plant, on account of not being able to visit the grow site often enough. Just got done toking on some of that seeded bud, and I got no complaints about potency at all.
Douglas.Curtis
Autistic Diplomat in Training
If you have space, grow the male and save the pollen in your freezer. Should it turn out to be garbage, you can throw it away. Should it turn out to be totally awesome, you can keep packets of the pollen for 10 years or more.
You'll want to separate the males from the female plants, somewhere where there isn't much airflow and you're not likely to pollinate the females. Water spoils pollen, so that can be helpful. Look up how to store dry and store pollen long term. I use rice as the desiccant (it works down to very low RH), and store in sealed foil bindles in the freezer. Toasted flour works as a bulking agent, as well as thermal/humidity shock absorption.
Store the bindles in a thermos in your freezer.
Enjoy.
You'll want to separate the males from the female plants, somewhere where there isn't much airflow and you're not likely to pollinate the females. Water spoils pollen, so that can be helpful. Look up how to store dry and store pollen long term. I use rice as the desiccant (it works down to very low RH), and store in sealed foil bindles in the freezer. Toasted flour works as a bulking agent, as well as thermal/humidity shock absorption.
Store the bindles in a thermos in your freezer.
Enjoy.
T
Teddybrae
keep an eye on them and pull the male/s AS SOON AS you see seeds begin to form near stem of female. that way you'll have mostly clean heads and many seeds for next year. good luck!
If you want to make some seeds there's no reason to impregnate the entire female plant unless it's for a special project. You'll get thousands if you do.
Watch the male very closely don't wait until the last minute to move it. It sucks to wake up one morning to find the balls hatched earlier then you thought and there's random pollen everywhere.
It doesn't take much light to get a male to produce pollen. Move it to a separate room or outdoors away from the female. You can use a florescent light in a closet, a window sill, or outdoors in sunlight.
Don't let any pollen contact you or your clothing, if it does wash it off with water. Pollen travels by air, an open window can let some in. I like having my males in a spot they can release their pollen without worrying about it getting to my females.
Collect the pollen in a paper bag. Wait until the balls open, stick the top or a few branches in the bag and shake. Keep it very dry and dark. Light and dampness is the enemy of pollen, even moisture from the air will mess with it.
There are different methods to impregnate the female, depending on how many seeds you want. Wait until the female has a healthy bunch of white hairs, many people pollinate early and get few seeds. I like to wait until the female has a nice clump.
If you just need a few seeds, 10-50, dip a cotton swab (Q-tip) in the pollen. Then carefully rub it all over the hairs on a labeled lower limb. Do it gently so pollen doesn't poof off and float around the room. Turn off your fans. This method works great but it doesn't make many seeds.
For more seeds you can put the pollen in a decent sized plastic bag. (Paper bags work too but are a bit more awkward) Gently place the bag over a branch, then close if off with rubber bands. Shake it several times and leave it on over night. The next day carefully remove it. This way you have an entire branch knocked up.
Another method is to clone your female plant. Let the clone flower along with the mother plant but you can remove it from the room an douse it in pollen. It's a good technique for making a lot of seeds.
When using these methods always have a squirt bottle of water handy. If any pollen spills you can destroy it by getting it wet.
Always give your seeds plenty of time to set. If that means going over your allotted flowering time so be it. Say your plants are done at nine weeks, you might have to let the seeded parts go another two weeks. Take this into account when you're planning seed projects. Don't want to go through all the steps involved to blow it in the end by producing greenie immature seeds that are barely viable. I like my seeds healthy brown.
Always label. Label your male pollen bags, label your female branches with the names of the males and females. Then when you remove the seeds label the container you put them in. This seems like basic stuff but it's very important.
If you went to the trouble of saving a strain you liked go the extra mile and label it so you know what it is in the future. Way too many growers end up with mystery plants and mystery seeds.
Watch the male very closely don't wait until the last minute to move it. It sucks to wake up one morning to find the balls hatched earlier then you thought and there's random pollen everywhere.
It doesn't take much light to get a male to produce pollen. Move it to a separate room or outdoors away from the female. You can use a florescent light in a closet, a window sill, or outdoors in sunlight.
Don't let any pollen contact you or your clothing, if it does wash it off with water. Pollen travels by air, an open window can let some in. I like having my males in a spot they can release their pollen without worrying about it getting to my females.
Collect the pollen in a paper bag. Wait until the balls open, stick the top or a few branches in the bag and shake. Keep it very dry and dark. Light and dampness is the enemy of pollen, even moisture from the air will mess with it.
There are different methods to impregnate the female, depending on how many seeds you want. Wait until the female has a healthy bunch of white hairs, many people pollinate early and get few seeds. I like to wait until the female has a nice clump.
If you just need a few seeds, 10-50, dip a cotton swab (Q-tip) in the pollen. Then carefully rub it all over the hairs on a labeled lower limb. Do it gently so pollen doesn't poof off and float around the room. Turn off your fans. This method works great but it doesn't make many seeds.
For more seeds you can put the pollen in a decent sized plastic bag. (Paper bags work too but are a bit more awkward) Gently place the bag over a branch, then close if off with rubber bands. Shake it several times and leave it on over night. The next day carefully remove it. This way you have an entire branch knocked up.
Another method is to clone your female plant. Let the clone flower along with the mother plant but you can remove it from the room an douse it in pollen. It's a good technique for making a lot of seeds.
When using these methods always have a squirt bottle of water handy. If any pollen spills you can destroy it by getting it wet.
Always give your seeds plenty of time to set. If that means going over your allotted flowering time so be it. Say your plants are done at nine weeks, you might have to let the seeded parts go another two weeks. Take this into account when you're planning seed projects. Don't want to go through all the steps involved to blow it in the end by producing greenie immature seeds that are barely viable. I like my seeds healthy brown.
Always label. Label your male pollen bags, label your female branches with the names of the males and females. Then when you remove the seeds label the container you put them in. This seems like basic stuff but it's very important.
If you went to the trouble of saving a strain you liked go the extra mile and label it so you know what it is in the future. Way too many growers end up with mystery plants and mystery seeds.
