Be Your Own Seed Bank.... Here's How!

Discussion in 'Cannabis Breeding' started by Hammered, Feb 14, 2010.

  1. #1 Hammered, Feb 14, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 14, 2010
    I found this pretty useful. You will too if youre tired of the B.S. ya get from buying seeds that are way over priced and who knows if you will even get em or not........ Put an end to the retarded crap and make your own beans..... :bongin:....:devious:


    The Pollination Method

    When the first male flowers start to show a possibility of opening, the plant is removed and isolated from the rest of the garden. The male can be placed in a makeshift box, closet, or in an adjacent room.
    It is very important to make sure it is secluded from the female garden and there is absolutely NO possibility of pollen drifting into unwanted areas.
    It is preferable to have sufficient lighting such as a compact flouroescent fixture, or if "Direct" sunlight from a window source is available that may also be adequate.

    The male plant MUST Remain on a 12/12 schedule.

    Through Experimentation I have found that if the male does not have ample lighting it will in most cases cease to finish the flowering cycle followed by complete shutdown of pollen production within several days.

    Pollen is Easily collected by placing a shot glass or similar item under the flower of which you would like to harvest the pollen from.
    Giving a gentle tap to the "ripe" flower with an object such as a pair of tweezers will often cause it to spring open like a parachute and occasionally fall into the glass, "remove them as they fall". It is very important not to let anything that will cause moisture to build in the glass which will result in your pollen caking up on you. Pull the flower from the glass with your tweezers and give it a good tap on the rim of the glass to remove remaining pollen stuck to the flower.

    While harvesting Tap the Flowers gently as not to disturb other male flowers on the plant. An agressive Tap will cause pollen to fall from other finished flowers on the plant resulting in a loss of viable pollen.

    Male flowers open over a period of several days, during this time you should gather what you deem to be enough for your project, working around the plant as the flowers are ready. A little goes a long way.
    It is also helpful if you remove flowers that you have already collected pollen from after each harvest. This is done so that each time you visit your male you can easily Identify Newly ripened flowers.
    It is common to catch enough for a small project over a period of 5 days or so after the male flowers have begun to open. At this time the male can either be discarded, consumed, or cloned for future use.

    "Naturally" the males flower earlier than the females in order to allow for sufficient overlap. By the time you have finished collecting your pollen the girls should be just about ready to be pollenated.

    I would then seclude your best Female for the traits that you want to hopefully preserve from the rest of the garden.
    Pollinate early to insure sufficient time for the seed to ripen, most Indica Strains should be pollinated from 10 to 17 days of 12/12 allowing at least 4 weeks for them to finish. It would be preferable to let them finish with the buds, the longer you let your seed ripen the more viable they will be.

    Applying the collected Pollen:

    If you are not breeding for seed only pollinating the main cola should be avoided, as an example I have personally had excellent results introducing pollen to the secondary colas producing plenty of seed for future use and enough to give to friends.

    Now take a cotton swab and gently dab it into the pollen collecting a small amount on the head of the swab, then hovering over the selected buds "female Flowers" that you wish to pollinate give the q-tip a gentle tap with your forefinger and you will see a golden cloud of pollen drift into the bud, try to avoid touching the "hairs" during flowering, It does harm them making them die and wither off.

    You can control the fall of the pollen by blowing gently in the direction you want it to travel.
    Before placing the girl back into the room make sure you dust it off by blowing excess pollen off of her manually, or you using a hair drying on it's cool setting also works, this will help to insure that you will not have the surplus pollen drifting into unwanted places.
    Another good suggestion would be to let the plant sit "secluded" for several hours after pollination, at this time spray a mist of plain PH corrected water over the entire plant "thoroughly".
    Wetting of the plant will dampen any residual pollen rendering it non-viable and basically useless. Let the plant sit and dry while it is away from the rest of the garden.
    Within 24 to 36 hours you should begin to see the pollinated "hairs" turn reddish or amber, this will show you exactly where to find your seed later.
    It is also a good identifier for finding buds pollinated by any occasional excess pollen.

    Don't rush their finish, let them go!
    I'd hate to see you waste a lot of good bud on immature "green" seeds by not letting them finish fully.

    Another tip: In regards to pollinating the lower branches, make sure that you are getting enough light penetration to the area that you have pollinated, if the buds in the areas which lack ample lighting do not usually finish properly neither will your seed.

    I'd try to always let them go at least 4.5 to 5 weeks.
    The seed is then dried, cured and stored IN the buds, packed neatly in canning jars or bagged in the fridge, taken out as they are needed for use.

    This should be a simple easy to use base for you to get started, but please continue Learning through experimantation. By doing this you will find unique ways of customizing this technique that better suits your needs.

    Good Luck in your Breeding Endeavors, I hope I have helped you OVERGROW The World!!!!
     
    • Like Like x 2
  2. This is great for first time breeder's. + rep
    somebody sticky this yah!?
    cheer's
     
  3. We must remember that when making our own seed stock, we must take into consideration that inbreeding an F1 hybrid will result in F2 offspring which is where recessive traits become noticeable. When making your own seed stock from one specific strain, it is best to select a nice mother from the F1 and pollinate her with pollen from sucessive offspring males. A well established true breeding strain will begin to grow true after the 3rd or 4th generation of inbreeding. The F2 and sucessive males selected to back into the F1 mother are vital in making your own seeds which will grow true; a stablized true breeding strain. I always select a male once the strain begins to grow true and keep pollen for future seed production. It is also good to keep clones of the F1 mother for the same reason.
     
  4. HIGH All, how do you Store your Pollen Less?

    Great Advice my Friend...it's Great to Learn from one of The Best.
     
  5. There are many ways to keep the pollen viable. Pollen is very unstable once harvested, and has a short shelf life. I actually keep the clusters of pods intact and place them into vacuum sealed bags, then into sealed film containers and store them in the refrigerator. It stay viable for up to a year this way, and is easy to label for future reference.
     
  6. Hey Less., thanks for stopping by and dropping some usefull info.... How can I tell when the male plant is mature enough to breed? Also , is it true that once the male is mature that I can just cut the pods off before they burst open and store it in the fridg. in a moisture & air tight container untill Im ready to use it?
     
  7. Yes, you can store th pods, I prefer to store whole clusters myself. I vacuum seal them, then place them into sealed film containers, and label the container. It will remain viable for months and up to a year.

    You will see the males begin to show pods, much like a female shows pistols, only they are football shaped pods. allo it to form a nice top and you an cut the top off andplace it in a cup, put a hole n the bottom of the cup to put the stem through, and place it in another cup with water and a litle root hormone or willow tree bark concentrate. This will help it fill out a little more before storing it for later use, plus you can collect pollen this way as well for any sacks which open up will deposit the pollen in the bottom of the cup.
     
  8. Thanks man, I need as much info as I can gather on breeding.. Im planning on doing a seed stock grow pretty soon, and Ive never done it before.. Im going to have some Jack-47 from Sweet Seeds , S.A.D. from Sweet Seeds and Great White Shark from Greenhouse . There all Fem. seeds... Im still trying to figure out what would be a good strain to breed with these strains... Any suggestions???
     
  9. does anybody have a picture of how pollinated hairs look?
     
  10. willow water rocks, great stuff for newly planted outdoor crops. and its great with fresh cuts too, I've been collecting pollen on glass and storing it in small paper folded envelopes I bury the envelopes in rice/dissicant and store them in the fridge in a small tupperware container.
     

  11. So if I have skunk number 1 seeds from a reputable seed bank, since this is such an old, and true breeding strain, would this be considered P1 even though its was originally derived from three different strains?

    practical question - if I pollinate a male and female from this seed pack, will my new seeds be of the same phenotypical quality, or will they have the potential to express qualities hidden in the original seed bank seeds plants?

    next level of question - say I also have a pack of "northern lights" seeds also from a reputable seed bank - labelled as an F1 hybrid with a genetic background including afghani, skunk no. 1 and haze - 1. will all the females grown from this seed pack have the same phenotypical expression? 2. if I pollinate a male with a female from this seed pack, the new seeds will be considered F2 and will definately have the potential for expressing different phenotypical qualities, right? Or could this "F1" strain be true breeding like the skunk number 1 mentioned above (since this northern lights has been inbred since the mid eighties)?

    thanks
     
  12. #12 donnycar, Apr 22, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 22, 2010
    so I'll rephrase/ possibly simplify my two questions...

    1. is skunk number 1 true breeding enough such that all the seeds from the seedbank will show nearly zero variation? AND if I pollinate one of the females with one of the males, will all the subsequent seeds still yield plants with virtually no variation?
    I think the answer to both of these is yes; can someone confirm this?

    2. is the northern lights strain which is labeled F1 hybrid true breeding enough such that all the seeds from the seedbank will show nearly zero variation? AND if I pollinate one of the females with one of the males, will all the subsequent seeds still yield plants with virtually no variation?
    I think the answer to the first part is yes, since F1 hybrids typically show little variation, but I suspect that since its labeled "F1" the seeds produced from the mating of these plants will show the typical Mendelian variations - might this not be the case since northern lights has been inbred for so many generations?

    thanks.
     
  13. ^ Chances are, most of the name-brand stuff you see on the web has been far removed from the original stock. Breeders put their own twist on girls(double edge sword IMO) Plus, scary stuff like feminized lines floating around still tainting the backbone. I like to take a large sheet of tin-foil with a crease down the middle to collect pollen. If you're paranoid about loose pollen floating around mist-spray R/O water on your girls(while HID off) and their environment. This will trigger the pollen grains to individually germinate. Also, you can cut your pollen w/ baking flower 25:1 ratio easily. You only need one pollen grain per pistil set to go prego. cheers
     
  14. #14 Hammered, Jun 4, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 4, 2013
    Forgot all about this post. Bump....
     
  15. This exactly. I was recently hooked up with some "new" strain.. we will see. The information I received was vary vague. I got roughly 40 seeds, and the smoke was great. I was told that these are seeds after it was crossed. He implied that these seeds were the first stable generation of seeds.

    Basically, I want to know the best way to reproduce seeds. Meaning is it as simple as 1 random male X 1 random female??

    Or is it more like pick the female with traits (phenos) you prefer. And find the most vigorous male of the bunch. (The best male X the best female)???

    Of coarse I won't know until they grow, but they could be femenized.. then my options are really limited.

    Am I over-thinking a simple process?
     
  16. No, a F1 back crossed to the original desirable female, is a F2.
     
  17. I could be wrong, but I think crossing the male and female of an F1 cross makes F2's.
    Backcrossing to the original would be a BX1.
     

Share This Page