Hey so among the different plots I'll have next year, im thinking of having some autoflowers. Now right now I have a couple of options, I could get either purchase 10 feminized seeds or 10 regular seeds, both of which'll be autoflowering. The benefit of getting feminized is obvious but I was wondering if I were to get the regulars, start those in the spring, and then instead of picking out the males, let them pollinate the females? And then I would have i'm thinking a shit ton of seeds I could then plant right after that harvest and i'm pretty sure that there's even more light when I would plant these new seeds so potentially more potency due to increased sunlight or whatever, more buds and a whole lot more overall product because of all the seeds I could plant. So what do you all think of this idea. Oh and one more thing, if after I dry the bud from the first harvest and remove all the seeds, would the bud be of decreased potency or taste or anything or would you barely be able to tell it was all seedy?
Hello Outsidebaker I'll be doing the same next year in regards to getting Original Auto seeds rather than Feminized in order to obtain more seeds for future grows. In order to avoid getting my entire plant pollinated I'll ONLY POLLINATE THE BUDS I SELECT. I'll achieve this by doing the following: Once my plants show their sex I will find the males and KEEP them. I'll then wait for the pollen pods (most call them the testies lol) to get really close to opening and releasing their pollen. When they are on the verge of popping open I'll carefully remove these and place them in a black film canister or something similar if I can't find one. I only have one grow under my belt but I have a pretty good idea of what the pods look like before they open.(You can probably search this on the Internet) After I have collected the pods I will let them dry out in the sun (or you can probably use a dehumidifier). After this I will then place them back into the film canister where they will sit until I need them. As this is all going on let you other females grow and harvest them. I should also mention NOT to germinate all your seeds(only half). Now after this germinate and plant the rest of your seeds. This time PULL all the males and leave none remaining. When the females begin to flower take your film canister with the pollen pods and begin to break several open until you have a decent amount of pollen. They should literally crumble when you break them which will leave the pollen in a nice pile. Remove the pod and anything that's not pollen from the pile of pollen. Now take this pollen and put it in another film canister or air tight container that is also dark and let's in no light. Bring the canister with the pollen to your grow spot and bring a small paint brush with you. Now dab the paintbrush in the pollen and knock off any excess pollen on the brush back into the canister. Ill then Take the brush and brush the pollen onto single buds or colas. Be carful not to get it onto the other buds by accident; only pollinate the buds you want. Do this for maybe two days in a row and when you harvest you should see with great satisfaction that only the buds YOU chose where pollinated an produced a whole bunch of seeds. This work both indoor and out and obviously with any strain. Hope this helped
Awesome guess this is what i'll do. One thing though, is the seedy bud smokeable after removing all the seeds? As in will there be any loss of potency, taste, or smell?
Yes, the bud is very much smokable. Hopefully though it (the selected bud)will be almost entirely seeds once done. But again; you can still smoke the part that wasn't pollinated. Just pick out the seeds of course. From reading tons of forums and post and from experience I've come to a conclusion that no potency or smell is lost. I'd choose small popcorn buds for this though so that your main colas remain seed free and you don't have to pick through them
Go out to your plots now and make compost heep piles. This way you will have fresh compost at site next year. Leavs and greens work well. Just pile them up and let them compost all year.
Haha man i've been thinking of doing that actually. Do you know of any guides or stickies on here that explain this and the process really well? I really just don't know how to get started. And Hill4321 yeah it was good lol one last question though, how far will pollen travel if I don't do anything about it, as in just let my male grow? I've heard it can travel about a mile from the wind alone but im sure that also like bees and butterflies can carry it further.
Just throw any leaves you gather this fall as well as lawn clippings you might have and spread them on your soil. If you can afford it maybe get some mulch too depending on how big your plot is. I've read that you should have your soil covered in the winter. I'm assuming it's because the cold weather will kill the top soils microbes. As for the pollen question I have no idea. That's a very good question. I'm assuming it all depends on weather. Rain will likely make the pollen damp an less likely to get blown around. And if it's really windy it wil go as far as te wind takes it. Then as you said wild life such as bees and butterflies will likely pollinate. However I've never had bees around my males or females so I'm not sure about this? Hopefully we get some really experienced growers in this thread. This could turn into a nice thread
And I just read your original question a second time. I'd go with a mixture of both feminized and original so that not half your plants are male
I did this thread below a few years ago. I would not use lawn clipping unless you dry them out in your driveway first. Leaves and anything green and small. No woody stuff though. You want soft greens and no pines or evergreens. Leafs and ferns work great. Should take you 10 minutes to make a 5x5x5 heep pile. when youy come back next year that heep pile will be 4x4x1 with fresh compost. http://forum.grasscity.com/outdoor-...-growers-make-your-compost-heep-pile-now.html