Pollen Collection And Long Term Storage

[gearbear]

I cut my flowering branches and discovered you can make them trigger "bust a nut" fester by keeping them at 88-100 dry heat and keeping them under 24 hour light. They look healthy too. I just dropped in tap water and they are thriving! Theory: Heat and Stress cause a reaction to set pollen.
I've had it it tap water a week now and no signs of deficiency.

 

[Stunted]

TY Bailer, just what was needed

 

[gearbear]

I had a little seed vial from grass-o-matic with a few rice in it, I put the branch in the little vial and ran 2700 k CFL on it for 24/0 and ran a heater in the same room. Everytime it dropped pollen I'd take the vial and carefully put the little anthers into the top and gently shake the pollen that hasn't dropped yet into the vial. I did that for about 7 flowers and Ta Da!

I only kept the male alive in case I screwed something up. cut all it's branches except on small very immature branch. I'll probably chop it soon and take it out. it's just a green stick now with a couple of fan leaves.

Or, I may actually keep it alive for root stock and graft a seedling to it for fast and efficient roots. Nah that seems like a lot of work to keep roots alive. Might make for a neat trial soon though. Maybe I might put in some dirt and just let it do it's think till I'm ready for it again. The roots may die off anyway due to age. But I def. want to try this with photo roots.

 

[JM]

oh yes! good idea! graft a female to it! lets see what happens!

 

[whatsgoodie]

I just germinated my last 7 AK47xDiesel Lowlife seeds... going to collect the pollen from the males, plan to cross them with a female Flower Power, Mi5 or Onyx.. haven't decided yet, we'll see after my grow. :>

Thanks for the guide Bailer, +rep!

 

[Zygote]

Hears how I do it.
Collecting pollen for long-term storage.

You need to dry your pollen for long-term storage. The reason is water kills; high moisture content leads to bacteria/fungi/yeast, growth.

Now to collect the pollen;
(Remove the anther cones (Male balls) from the flowers and put them in glassine envelopes. Dry the anther containers by placing them 30 cm below a 100-watt lamp for 24 hours. The lamp creates a drying temperature of about 30 ºC = 86 ºF.)
Drying under a light for 24hr works better then air drying for me. Use a funnel with the mesh over the end to screen out plant material on it's way in to the vials.
YOU ARE DRYING ANTHERS NOT PRUE POLLEN.

Just don't over dry the pure pollen.

Then freeze.

1 year if the pollen is dried stored properly.
Though the pollen will start to loss it viability after 6 months in a house hold freezer.
If you can store pollen in liquid nitrogen for 20 + years!!

 

[Joe Dirt]

Thanks guys, I will be pollinating within a couple days. I hope to have some extra so this will be a real help!

 

[shovelheadedkillmachine]

This is what I needed to read. I'm going to try some breeding down the track so this info is vital. How would you go collecting the pollen and placing in a brown paper bag in a well lite area for the day to dry it out??? Good info guys. cheers..

 

[infamousralphster]

i understand how to collect the pollen but nobody mentioned when to collect pollen. a couple weeks after it shows its balls or just wait until you see pollin falling when you shake the plant?? never grown out a male before.

 

[Northern Grower]

Collect it as it falls. The preflower pods won't drop as much pollen. Once he is full of sacs he will drop a lot of pollen. I also shake him out onto a glass surface a few times too.

Pre flower pollen is just as viable as the pollen you gather late in flower. Just depends how much pollen you want.

I collect it up a few times.