El Tigre's TINY BOX for reversing plants and pollen collection

[Douglas.Curtis]

About 30wpsqft with SILs for nice sized female flowers, and a whole lot less for male flowers. Even with only 13w in such a small setup, I really wouldn't spend much time on reflective side walls. With males, you're going to get a significant amount of pollen (for a small breedeer) without reflective sides. No worries.

As long as those filters are rated to stop pollen they should work great! Even if they're only 'mostly 'effective, doubling up will help a lot. Good job.

Interesting about the darker genetics, I've always steered clear of the purples anyway... they tend to mess up my brain. lol Looking good, appreciate the updates.

 

[El Tigre]

My little plant is getting sprayed 2 times a day for 13 days now.
I sacrificed a branch, for space reasons.

She is showing first female flowers now, also the bigger sister i have in my tent flowers slowly though.


Clone seems to survive well, even if it didn't yellowed and I'm not seeing any root. However it started to flower, so spray also for the clone.

 

[ReikoX]

Almost there, I find it usually takes three weeks of spraying to see male bits, then another couple weeks to get enough flowers to open to pollinate.

 

[El Tigre]

Almost there, I find it usually takes three weeks of spraying to see male bits, then another couple weeks to get enough flowers to open to pollinate.

It's a waiting game then! I think i started a little early with CS, maybe i need to prepare a new batch soon.
Today i did some training, small plant got too big for the nano box.

 

[El Tigre]

IT'S A BOY!

IT'S A BOY!

I am happy to announce that today, as if by magic, a lot of male flowers have appeared.
Just in case, I decided to install my pollen filters.
Compared to the JLP system, I did without hot glue using generous doses of tape.
I think as soon as the pollen is collected, I will put the filters aside to preserve them for the next round. So cutting tape seems easier.
I made a filter also for my tent intake.

Maybe i will sacrifice a branch and some nodes. I don't need a ton of pollen and i am concerned to avoid to overdo and make a mess.
How long will be until some pollen could be released?

 

[Chevy cHaze]

yeah tape ftw
cc

 

[PCBuds]

yeah tape ftw
cc

I fricken love tape !!!

Lol...


.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Awesome!!

 

[Sunshineinabag]

Gorilla tape too

 

[El Tigre]

So I told and I did a major pruning.
This let me feel a little more secure to handle the situation in my tiny space.
Later I'll try to build an horizontal base with carton to figure how to manage future pollen collection.


I ask again, how long i will be safe from pollen contamination? One week? Less/more?


Below a picture taken with microscope of the young male flowers.

 

[Sunshineinabag]

some of you guys at this site are master picture takers man im jealous

 

[blynx]

<snip>

I ask again, how long i will be safe from pollen contamination? One week? Less/more?

Below a picture taken with microscope of the young male flowers.

View Image
View Image

The male flowers should start opening in a week or so.

 

[El Tigre]

some of you guys at this site are master picture takers man im jealous

You are too generous, at least with me LOL

 

[El Tigre]

The male flowers should start opening in a week or so.

Thanks Blynx!


One week is not so long, so i tried to prepare my definitive setup for pollen collection.
Plant will stay always into the tiny box now until the end, getting sprayed there (i was used to do this into my shower).
I cut an edge of the carton base to water more comfortably with a syringe as i had planned.
I kept alive the small cutting, lets see if she became a male or not.


Fell free to share any advice, suggestion or opinion.

I'll appreciate fro sure.

 

[blynx]

Is that foil to collect pollen?

If it is, I would try to make some sort of collar with it a lot higher up the plant, like right below the male flowers.

You can also collect the male flowers one at a time as they open. I use a fine tipped pair of scissors and a narrow folded piece of paper right below the male flower to catch it when I cut it off the plant.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Good suggestion, wider foil will help.

You can also skip the foil in the bucket if you like. Pick the nearly ripe pods off each day until you have many pods ripening each day. Cut the branch and put it in a glass of water in a cupboard. A 15w light is fine, and it doesn't even have to be 12/12.

 

[El Tigre]

Is that foil to collect pollen?

If it is, I would try to make some sort of collar with it a lot higher up the plant, like right below the male flowers.

You can also collect the male flowers one at a time as they open. I use a fine tipped pair of scissors and a narrow folded piece of paper right below the male flower to catch it when I cut it off the plant.

Good suggestion, wider foil will help.

You can also skip the foil in the bucket if you like. Pick the nearly ripe pods off each day until you have many pods ripening each day. Cut the branch and put it in a glass of water in a cupboard. A 15w light is fine, and it doesn't even have to be 12/12.

Thanks for helping out guys.


So i put the carton base upper on the plant, i can adjust the foil later.

My intent is more to understand when pods start to open more than collecting pollen on those.


I also put the globe on the bulb to spread better the light.


My plan is to wait until enough pods are ready and harvest pollen once-gently beating the flowers on a flat surface - in the most far room from my tent i have.
Then trash my reversed plant, spray water in the air, take a shower and wash my clothes.
I don't need a ton of pollen and this seems quite safe against pollination.


What do you think? Does this make sense?

Some more questions:
Do you mean take off mature pods and collect them to get pollen?



Should I stop spraying when i see first mature pods or earlier?

 

[blynx]

<snip>
Some more questions:
Do you mean take off mature pods and collect them to get pollen?
View Image

When the male flower opens, ie you see 4 sides open like an upside down flower, you cut that single flower off and collect it. In the image you can see a cluster of male flowers above the folded paper. There is one male flower in that cluster that you can see opening. That's the one that I cut off the plant and collected.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

[/FONT]

I take the cut off male flowers and let them sit on a piece of paper. They will release their pollen over the next day onto the paper. I use the tea ball in this pic to strain the plant material out. You can then scrape the pollen off the paper and save it/use it. The pollen is stored in the foil that gets folded up and labeled. This is then placed in a small ziplock bag with some Damprid (dessicant) and that ziplock bag is then vacuum packed in a jar that is stored in a freezer. Pollen saved this way will last many years. Not a fan of cutting pollen with flour.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

[/FONT]

 

[ReikoX]

Good advise from blynx. I do pretty much the exact thing, except I like to use tweezers and a paper cup.

 

[El Tigre]

Incredibly useful Blynx! Thanks also to you Reiko for confirming.
Now I have quite clear the process.

If you want, I ask you (or who wants to) further help / opinion:


I have the small box in a separate room but not so far from the flowering tent (I live in an apartment).
I have the JLB style filter running so i should be safe when the box i closed and the plant untouched.

On the other hand i fear to spread out the pollen if i touch male flowers too much.
Thinking about harvesting once when enough flowers are starting to opening, taking just the pollen that i can get in that occasion, it makes sense?
I'm too concerned about contamination?