Quote:
Originally Posted by cantharis  Many of us, especially if we are growing an expensive strain, would like to get our plants to make a small amount of seed for next year (or couple of years). But without turning our whole crop seedy.
Keep one male alive, but keep him small by keeping him in a small pot. Keep him well away from the girls - my girls grow on my roof terrace, I keep any male in a corner of my garden downstairs. About 4 weeks into flowering, when there are a good load of trichomes, take a plastic freezer bag, put it over the male and give it a shake. You will collect a good lot of pollen in the bag - you may not actually see anything, but itīs there all right. Now put the bag around one flowering branch of one female, secure it with an elastic band, give it a good shake, leave it for a week.
At harvest, that branch will have a hundred or more seeds, but the rest of your crop will remain sin semilla.
I am not a geneticist, but I have done this with White Widow, and have found the progeny of the seeds to be every bit as potent as the parents. |
NOTE: Seeds take approximately 4 weeks to mature properly. Please be sure you pollinate 4 weeks before your particular strain will be ready to harvest. Should you maiss the timing... you may need to not harvest the one branch with seeds on it until the seeds fully mature.
NOTE: Store seeds in a COOL DRY PLACE. They can usually store for several years.
Great topic Cantharis.... getting seeds in this manner is a great backup in case of emergency and can be quite handy.
Just remember that the seeds you've made will have a slightly greater diversity than the seeds you originally started with. When you plant them you'll be looking for the females that have the same growing characteristics that the original female had. (as an example... C-99 always shows pre-flowers on day 43 after poking it's head up from the soil. Any C-99 female showing pre-flowers at any other day will probably NOT have the magic high that C-99 is known for and will have several other differences.)
The more stable the strain is... the fewer differences your seeds will produce. With unstable strains you may see up to 7 or more different types of plants growing. Tall, short, heavy flowers, light flowers, smell, no-smell.
The seeds you purchase from seed companies are bred for consistency and SHOULD all grow and mature at the same height and rates and have VERY similar highs.
Should you produce some seeds and grow those plants and grow THOSE seeds you're going to find even MORE diversity in plant types.
Have fun folks!