@Kronic I’ve personally found myself that the first few sacs that burst aren’t very viable and the germination rate of seeds bred with it is subpar. I usually just clip off the first few that burst and toss them (usually 3 to 5 depending on how all the other sacs look). As soon as all the rest of the sacs are swollen and look like they’re about to burst I know it’s ready to harvest and you get much more viable pollen and seeds bred with it have a much higher and more acceptable germination rate.
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@MDBuds yea that’s what I noticed! I had 3 initial nanners open up but have 0 dust to them. I let them mature for another 2 and a half weeks and I had A TON of mature pollen, which I am hoping my first collection is good and viable as it was pretty late into flower and development at that point. However I know now that I’ve allowed them to mature for a full 8 weeks since the initial first nanner, this next collection is going to be some solid pollen! I keep mine in the freezer, I know that’s a good way to do it but I cannot find anywhere online that tells me how long pollen can last for, do you have any ideas how long one can freeze pollen? My freezer is pretty damn cold, I keep rats frozen for my snakes so it’s like almost on the max freezing level. I’ll have to look at temp when I get back but yea I’m hyped to get some pollen! Cannot wait to finally grow this plant from seed!!! She has to be 25-28%
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@Kronic you can keep pollen up to a year or longer if processed and stored properly.
What I do when I harvest my pollen is I clip the sacs off as they burst and then set them aside to dry. Once it’s dry I break them open and sift them through a micro screen to get out all of the plant material from the sacs or possible contaminants.
After that I will take just the small amount I will be using immediately and set it aside as fresh pollen only lasts a few weeks.
The rest I will add a little bit of white flour to and mix it up. Flour helps pull extra moisture out before going into the freezer and doesn’t hurt the pollen. Then I store it in an air tight amber glass jar with a 10% rh silica pack. It can keep for a year or more this way if your freezer is cold enough.
When you go to use it just take out the tiny bit you need and put the rest back in the freezer immediately.
The most I’ll usually take out at one time is about 1/8th tsp. That’s enough to pollinate a few ladies using a fine paint brush. Just let it come to room temp and “wake up” before pollination.
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Well, that answers my questions about the pollen I’ve had sitting in a cupboard. Bummer.
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So everything sprouted but 1 orange skunk and one purple haze auto. I’ll be potting tomorrow and hopefully the late bloomers will pop up by then. I’ll be getting the CS prepped too. I’m already excited for this breeding project.
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Beautiful Babies! I can’t wait to see them grow
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I am jealous you get to start 16 and I only get to start 2 at a time, wishing I had the space!! I also will be watching this grow (no pressure on you buddy) LOL
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I’m stalking…er… watching you, too. 
Also, I’m out of likes, so…
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@dmtscravey I can grow up to 24 on my license indoor but don’t have nearly enough space. Lol
Since the White Widow is regular I will cull all but the breeding male so I’ll only have 4 maybe 5 females.
4 of my orange skunk made it and only 2 of my purple haze auto.
So it looks like I’ll have 10 females total for a 4x4 when I go to flower and I’ll likely be harvesting the purple haze before I flower the orange skunk and white widow so I’ll only have maybe 8 photos going and 1 or 2 clones of my male for breeding.
If I do it right each photo will get 2 square feet of space and I can probably scrog it and fill the whole space easy. I’ll probably shoot for 16 to 24 tops each plant.
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Yeah here in Missouri I could legally grow 16 with 6 in flower at any given time. Eventually I will get to there it will just take a while. And Just doing these two or three things to the plant the topping and LST especially and then the fimming I can tell already produces so much more flower I’m trying to convince my brother do it also he’s an old High Times taught groweŕ who doesn’t even like to touch a plant but he also gets very little Harvest off of each one. So I’m hoping to convert him to also growing like this but if not oh well that’s on him not me. I’m going to continue to learn this art of bonsaing my plants and have fun with it.
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@dmtscravey hope you convince him to use some of the “new” ways even though most of them have been used for centuries in agriculture.
Speaking of bonsai though, I might choose one plant to bonsai just for fun. White Widow is a good one to bonsai since it’s hardy and bushy. You can keep it in veg a long time and bonsai it before you flower it and get a beautiful piece of art.
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Commenting because I like this.
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My brother is funny he is still not convinced that he’s getting all female seeds he doesn’t believe they can do that LOL he’s not quite up on things in the scientific area I guess you could say.
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How old is he? How was he as a student? That’ll teach how to teach him.
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I’m up to 7 at a time!
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Sorry I hijacked your column I’ll get off here and go to another subject.
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I’m actually finishing out the last 1200 SF of basement space, of which I’m working on building a custom grow room. Won’t be done for a couple years as I can’t do it till last (per the wife), but can’t wait! Actually prepping for retirement in about 5 years.
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This may not be relevant to this breeding project, but I do have a question. What happens if you cross an auto female with a photo male? Also, is there such a thing as male autos?
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@Bill if you breed an auto with a photo you will get seeds that will be photo, fast, and auto. Autoflowering is a recessive trait and requires two recessive alleles for the gene.
Then if you wanted to keep it auto after you would need to breed the F1s into each other choosing the ones with the best auto flower traits and stabilize it over time. Usually between F3 and F5 you will get a stable auto flower if breeding from an auto/photo cross.
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