Planting for seed

[h.h.]

I have some good genetics, 2 of which I'm pretty sure are males. They are ready to be put outside permanently until harvest. I want seed. How tightly can I group them together? What sort of nutes should I be using? Anything else on the growing and pollination aspect you can tell me would be appreciated as well. I see breeding, harvesting, and drying seed here but none of the other stuff. Am I overlooking it?
Thanks,
Planting for peace

 

[love?]

Do you want a lot of seeds or just some?

If you just want some I would plant the males far away from the females, take pollen over to the males in a plastic bag for example and pollinate a couple of buds and do a single pollination at an appropriate time.

On the other hand if you don't mind having entire plants seeded then just have the males as close to the females as possible. The males will die earlier and then leave behind rotting roots so I wouldn't plant in the same container with a female (if you're using containers) but besides that I don't think there's that much else to it.

About the nutrients... I've heard advice to give them "what you'd give the girls". I'm sure that's excellent advice. However I'm too cheap to use fertilizers on males and always just use plain water.

 

[Ulysses]

First off, kudos to you for wanting to make seeds.

I often cut a branch off each male then immediately take them to the female garden and smack the lower, smaller buds around a bit with the branches- doesn't have to be hard... This way the top buds may get a seed or two- the best buds remain seedless.

You may also benefit from a wider cannibinoid profile from the seeded buds and possibly a slightly earlier harvest.

The male plants don't require as much nutes or light as the females...

Best of Luck!

 

[marijuanamat]

For flowering your males just use the same nutrients as you'd use on your females for the first 3-4 weeks until the males start heavily dropping pollen then just use water from then on,this works for me but i'm sure others will have differant ideas.

 

[vonforne]

h.h., do not put those males outside if you have females within 3 miles.

You could make a containment unit for them if you choose to keep them inside and collect pollen. I use a better knife and lightly touch the male flower. It will collect the pollen and then I will lightly touch the female pistols. I usually get a couple hundred seeds that way.

V

 

[Momerath]

I agree with both these guys ^^

I like to keep my males separate, usually in an isolated indoor spot where I can collect the pollen by hand and transfer it to the bud(s) I want seeded. I give them a light dusting then loosely tie a paper bag around the pollinated branch for a day (I pollinate outside so I can't risk the pollen spreading). I've had resounding success with this method, especially in keeping the rest of the plant sensi.

 

[creep]

i like to feed my males with a two-part nutrient called "mother plant" it's the same thing I give my moms and it works great

 

[h.h.]

h.h., do not put those males outside if you have females within 3 miles.

You could make a containment unit for them if you choose to keep them inside and collect pollen. I use a better knife and lightly touch the male flower. It will collect the pollen and then I will lightly touch the female pistols. I usually get a couple hundred seeds that way.

V

I'm just going for seed this round. Might piss the neighbors off though. They'd be getting good genetics anyway.
I've decided now to leave everything separate so I could easily isolate the males inside or I could isolate my females, leave my males out and bum seed off the neighbor.

 

[Momerath]

Well its always good ettiquite to be sure if your neighbors have any growing, that you dont contaminate the air with pollen. That could really ruin someones hard work in growing a personal crop of sensimilla and make them none too happy.
A male isolation unit would be ideal in this situation. You can still collect your pollen and hit your ladies, but at the same time saving your neighbors the hassle of having a potential ruined crop of senimilla

 

[h.h.]

I certainly wouldn't want to ruin the neighbor's work.
I rely on cfl's for early veg and finish in the sun. Will they work to keep a male going? Would I switch to 2700K?

 

[Momerath]

They certainly will! I usually keep males alive with cfl's in a small closet or something similar. The color spectrum is really inconsequencial as long as it is one that plants respond to (either blues or reds), unless you are going for extreme male flower production (seems silly as some of the smallest boys have given me a rediculous amount of pollen).

So short answers are yes, and if you'd like

 

[h.h.]

That answers another question. I take it, I can get good pollen off of a stunted male.
I also take that I can stick with 6500k lights, as they stay a lot cooler, maybe throw in a couple 2700's for luck.
What about light leaks? Do I need to be as concerned?
Thanks, everything here is much appreciated.

 

[Momerath]

Light leaks shouldnt bother a male. Its never good to stress them unnecessarily, but males are pretty easy going, I've never really had much trouble with them. Stick em under a light, give em a little bit of bloom nutes (or not), and collect the pollen daily.
Store in an airtight container with a dessicant, but if you have flowering girls, use as soon as possible, fresh pollen works quite a bit better than stored pollen.

 

[Danki-Herbals]

I agree with both these guys ^^

I like to keep my males separate, usually in an isolated indoor spot where I can collect the pollen by hand and transfer it to the bud(s) I want seeded. I give them a light dusting then loosely tie a paper bag around the pollinated branch for a day (I pollinate outside so I can't risk the pollen spreading). I've had resounding success with this method, especially in keeping the rest of the plant sensi.

this is a very good thing to do that way you can control which branch produces your seed stock and if you pollinate efficently you should be able to get a nice chunk of seeds out of a couple few branchs. just make sure you take the bag back off after they come back from there honeymoon they still want all the sun they can get , give it a while to take and not just spread and defeat the whole purpose of the bag

 

[BlueGrassToker]

Growers tend to obsess over the light spectrum and a whole host of other issues in an attempt to help the female to produce as much potent bud as possible.

That is not the case for a male. All we need from him is some pollen, and it matters not if he is robust and healthy bursting forth with stamen, or sickly and only has a few pods per node...his pollen will carry the exact same genetic material in either case.
And like has been stated, males are not real picky as to what sort of conditions it sees as long as it gets what it needs to simply survive long enough to produce viable pollen.

In my experience, as soon as you have flowered a male long enough to produce a few stamen, then it is on and not much you can do will stop them from doing their thing. This includes simply cutting a branch off and sticking it into a glass of water, then sticking into a veg chamber with other vegging plants. It may or may not root, and it may or may not survive long..but it will give you more than enough pollen for a pollination, and then some.
Be aware that there might be residual pollen on the leaves and stalks of the vegging plants that were in the box, and they need to be washed off a bit before you flower them...unless of course you want more seeds next run. (you won't see many seeds come from something like that, but it can cause the rouge seed or three here and there)
I always treat my plants as a pest prevention prior to and just into flower, so if a male has spit on them in veg, it is not viable due to my spraying of the plants.

 

[inquest]

Hey guys, Here's an article you may find interesting.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071115164134.htm

It's primarily about mother plants, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine a similar or same phenomenon to occur on the male side of things. Although, a good male may catch an illness and look poor, his genes should still be ok. I wouldn't want this to be the "norm" for how I select and keep a male, though. Remember all plants are individuals (unless cloned) and have strengths and weaknesses and if you select sick plants, well.... you're selecting FOR sick plants.


http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov/cover
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/11/21/w...t-destiny.html
http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...951968,00.html

A few more articles. The subject is people in these last three, though. Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying that if you live unhealthy or you raise your plants a bit unhealthily that you ARE going to have problems, just that you MIGHT. If an individual is prediposed to a condition and the environment provides the triggers, chances are pretty good that condition will express itself. Say, powdery mildew or colored leaves when cold, good or bad, genes express themselves. This is a great time to select healthy specimens amongst affected ones, however! Thus, breeding OUT poor genes.