Making feminized seed

First let me start off by saying I am not an expert at breeding. I don't want people to get off on the wrong foot here. I simply make seed for myself,family and friends.
I have been making feminized seeds for several years now. Timing is important both in the maturity of your pollen and your female pistils. I use two clones from a mother plant to make my seeds from. They can come from different varieties if you're making a cross. I use a 1/2 gallon pot for my pollen donor and a 1 gallon pot for my female. I start to spray CS on my pollen donor 1 week prior to flipping to 12/12. Then spray for one week more before I flip my female. I continue spraying my pollen donor until I see well developed pollen sacs. By doing this I find I have the highest production of seed. A female needs to be around 3-4 weeks in flower before her pistils are mature enough to accept pollen. The pollen from our donor is not ready to drop mature pollen for at least 5 weeks. Sometimes 6 weeks. Once my pollen donor starts dropping pollen I gently shake it over my female daily for 1 week. This insures maximum pollination of my female. I run my female through her full flowering cycle. I do a progressive seed harvest. Every few days more calyx's open exposing mature seeds ready to drop. I find once the seeds are maturing 100 + seeds every few days is average until she is done. Anyone can browse my journal to see several of the photo period crosses and BX1 I've made in that journal. My latest venture in feminized seeds making was an auto-flower cross. I now have her offspring at 50 days old. Good luck and if you have questions or can offer insite in any way do not hesitate to do so. We are all here to learn and share with one another.

 

I've used the 9V battery and even tried the two 9V batteries connected. I find the particle size too large with the two 9V batteries connected. I didn't have the best results using those methods. I have much better results using an old cell phone charger with alligator clips connected to the leads. Most cell phone chargers have an output of 5.0-5.1 volts. I believe the smaller particle size of the silver works better in my experience. It does take a bit longer to get to 20-30 ppm. But, I find I get the best results using this method.

Bonus: To double check your silver is actually suspended in the water. You can use any laser and shoot through the water horizontally. In distilled water the laser will not show up in the water column. When you check your colloidal silver your laser will magically appear in the water column. This is a trick I learned from @3Deez.

On another subject. I couldn't find definitive proof of the silver particles actually becoming systemic within the plant that has been sprayed with the silver. But, it is likely and I would not consume the plant that has been sprayed. I grow enough weed that I just toss whatever plant matter is left after I harvest seeds.

Exposure-Related Health Effects of Silver and Silver Compounds: A Review

 

Thanks for the advice @gxxire and for dropping that knowledge on us. I have used Tiresias Mist once and it worked well. I'm currently back crossing a Nirvana seeds Raspberry cough. My last attempt was a failure. I ended up crossing the Raspberry cough female I had in waiting with White widow pollen I had on hand. I'm hoping for a better outcome this time along. I'll need to check and see if I still have a little bit of that Tiresias Mist left.

 

I found the Tiresias Mist I had used once before. I still have about 1/3 of the 2oz. bottle. After reading the MSDS on this product it appears to be colloidal silver, not silver thiosulfate.

 

Chem strains were never my first choice. But, we all have different tastes. I loved Nirvana's Zkittles. I grew it from their feminized seed. I have pictures of that whole grow in my journal. She was mainlined to 8 tops. You can breed with a feminized female or a true female to make feminized seed. I make feminized seed because I only grow for my own needs and have a few small spaces to grow in. I find mainlining works best when the plants are grown from seed. And mainlining plants is my preferred training method for my small grow spaces.

 

I just topped my next mainline for the first time. That's some high gpw. I don't grow for weight. I grow for the quality of medicinal properties. I don't think I would grow a strain I needed to pick off pollen sacs from. I do understand there are some great strains that are prone to hermi. They are just not strains I care to grow.

 

@2cent420, I have no experience with STS. I use Colloidal silver as it's cheap and easy to make. I do spray CS every day until I have pollen sacs opening. It's really not a big deal as I do this solely as a hobby and not for resale.

 

I purchased a small 2x2 tent, a LED light and a fan just for making feminized seed. I have around $125.00 in this whole setup. Here's my current feminized seeds grow. This is a Nirvana seeds Raspberry cough. She is starting to make seed and he is still dropping pollen. They will stay together for another week and then he becomes worm food. I also progressively harvest my seeds for several weeks when they become mature. From the 1 gallon pot she is in I should get 500-700 mature seeds after sorting out the undesirable ones.

 

I thought I'd show a picture of the donor Raspberry cough. She is just starting to fade and still has a week or two before I'll harvest her.