Growing Pollen

The kush pollen is a complete hit or miss, the genetics could be extremely good or not so good. The only way to know for sure would be to cross it with your r4 female flower and grow the seeds. Then you would have created your own strain!! You can call it whatever you want haha. But pollen will spread extremely extremely easy so if you don't want 1000 seeds you better be very very careful to not pollinate more than one cola. I would suggest doing this by taking a paintbrush and dip it in the pollen and then brush the pollen onto the desired cola. Then Take a plastic bag and put it over the cola and tie it at the stem with a string or twist tie to make sure no pollen escapes the bag.

 

It does seem possible that the bag would cause that branch to over heat although this is not the case and I am not exactly sure why but I would guess that the rest of the plant continues getting fresh oxygen and transports it to the branch in the bag. Plus it only takes a few weeks for the seeds to fully form, so you won't need to leave the branch too long.

 

Long term storage is 90 +/-? days in the freezer. Best used right away though. Same for seeds, they work best right from the plant new.
 
I gather pollen and keep it in a pill bottle and selectively pollinate buds by hand with a Q-tip dipped in pollen.

 

I have some males blooming right now, ill try and get some pollen. Then cross my white rhinos with dark devils.
 
Im heading out to the garden with a camera.

 

I pollinated this dark devil.
 
You can see one of the bloomed flowers just sitting on the female. It was just in the pottle with the pollen so I left it there.
 

 

 
Really no need for a bag at all. Pollination/fertilization happens pretty fast, like 1/2 hour fast. You can almost watch the pistil shrivel/crinkle up as the male 'stuff' in the pollen works it's way down.
 
Then, just spritz everything with plain water. The water will cause any excess pollen to germinate and die, and pollinated flowers are not going to pollinate anything else. That would be like a pregnant woman getting another woman pregnant just by being in the same room, ain't gonna happen.
 
Wet

 

I just planted 10 seeds on the full moon (9-8,9-14), hoping I can get a male before the first frost. These were seeds from a Spring crossing and are F4 seeds. 5 of the seeds were from harvest the very end of June and 5 had been missed and harvested towards the end of August, when I gave my neighbor the plants (old host plants).
 
FWIW, I've found the best and most viable seeds come from pre flowers, rather than developed buds. I've also found that they will develop no matter the light schedule. Once pollinated, 18/6 works just as well as 12/12 for seed development and T-5 HO works just as well as full sun outdoors. I've checked this out more than once to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Now, it seems I only use the natural 12/12 to trigger the males to flower.
 
The female Indica that I've been running for the last 5 years is hard to keep from going into flower.
 
What I do, is start 10 or so clones a couple months before the seeds and get them going well in party cups. They will have pre flowers every 1/2" or so, and sometimes closer than that. It's a very dense plant. The seeds are started outside under natural 12/12. Springtime is no problem, after the last frost. Right now, it's iffy whether I can beat the frost or not. Last year, I didn't and had to wait till April. The clones are usually under 8" tall when pollinated.
 
If I can, I don't use the first male that shows, but the ones that show later and really don't look like males. That's the plan anyway. It may or may not work out. Pretty much depends on the weather. Really try and avoid bringing any males in the house.
 
Anyway, when a male is shedding good, I'll put it on top of a 5 gal bucket and bring the clones outside and arrange them below. Usually, a late afternoon, overnight, and the next morning is enough to knock everyone up. I'll pull the clones in before the sun gets too intense to avoid sunburn.
 
The pistils will shrivel pretty quick when pollinated (1/2hr to 1 hr max), so you can tell if more time near the male is needed or not.
 
On all the previous crosses I have killed the females out of hand. What I want is, as nearly pure as I can get to the original female like 95% or more. All the females in the crosses are clones of the same plant. With these seeds being the F4 cross, it should be getting pretty close. If not, I'll wait on the F5 seeds. We'll see. The female plant is very distinctive with all leaves only having 3 lobes. I call it Tres and no idea of any strain name, only that it is pure Indica.
 
Anyway, that's how I do my crossing. Even with just pre flowers and sorta small clones, I'll end up with at least 50 very viable seeds and usually more. More than enough for breeding.
 
Wet

 

This is a really good thread. It helped answer some questions I was having.

I want to make my own seeds, but was afraid of accidentally pollinating all my females. I like poke's idea of either growing bud or seeds, never together. I might try to do it like that, and then I'll have less to worry about. Plus then maybe I'll be able to pollinate an entire female plant, producing more seeds.

If someone were to pollinate only 1 isolated branch, how many seeds do you think that usually produces?

 

 
This is almost exactly what I do! Only difference, I put a little pollen in the bag, tie it around the branch and shake it around a bit. I remove the bag after a few days, spray with a water bottle to kill any remaining pollen.
 
This is from one branch with a gallon baggie on it.
 

 
@[member="PP117"] this pollination created 500 seeds, and that's after I picked out all the premies and rejects!
 
Edit: I just trimmed the plant directly next to this one, and I have yet to find a single stray seed.
 
Peace!
P-

 

That's an awesome amount of seeds from 1 branch!

You didn't have any problems with accidentally pollinating any other branches? Did you have all the plants in the same growing area?

 

 
Thanks PP117!
 
3 plants in one room, only one branch pollinated. I did see one seed on the same plant, on a bud directly next to the baggie. But as I said above, I just trimmed a whole plant which was right next to this one, and I have yet to find a single seed. I put a little pollen in the baggy (outside the flowering area), keep it pretty closed (Make sure you turn the fans off before you bring the pollen in the room) bend the branch a little so you don't have to turn the baggie upside-down, twist tie around the stem. Usually it builds up a little moisture after a couple of days. At this point I am ass-uming the pollen would be pretty well dead, but I squirt the branch and surrounding area with a little water after I take the bag off.
 
Hope that helps!
P-