Male harvest day today
Both the Blue Ripper F1 male and Blue Ripper x Harlequin F1 Tri-leaf male were more than ready to harvest.
Thought I'd share my pollen collecting process for anyone planning to do this. I've tried a bunch of different things and landed on this process which has been consistently successful.
When collecting/using pollen, moisture is your worst enemy. You need to try and do everything you can to keep any moisture out of the final container to ensure the most viable and longest lasting pollen. One collection can produce 1000's of seeds if you wanted but only if it's clean and dry. There's nothing more frustrating than taking the time/space to run the male, then pollinate some females, and wait 8+ weeks, to get nothing or limited amounts of seeds. Been there, done that
I ended up with about the same amount of pollen from both plants, 1 in a 2gal and the Blue Ripper in a 1gal pot. Doesn't take much, keep in mind that males tend to stretch like mofo's. That 1gal Blue Ripper had about 1 week of veg in a 1gal pot and ended up bending the main branch to keep it from touching the COBs. I've grown out a male in a party cup that ended up 2ft. tall
Nice thing with flowering males is that most will finish within 30 days from the flip to 12/12
1) To collect the initial pollen and get as much as possible. I let them go until they're starting to drop pollen, you'll know, if you tap a branch when they're ready you'll see pollen coming off it in a little cloud. To reduce moisture further in the flowers/branches I do the last watering and let them dry right out for a couple of days, until they're drooping. This just reduces the amount of moisture in the plant itself and the flowers.
2) When ready to harvest, I grab a couple of large plastic freezer bags. These are bigger so allow you to shake off larger branches without the pollen flying all over the place. I then cut individual branches shorter than the length of the bag and vigorously shake each branch into the large bag. Don't worry about little flowers or plant material coming off into this bag, we'll clean it up later.
Large bags with initial rough collection and some flower material:
3) Now we have some pure pollen (dark yellow) and a mix of small flower material. We want to get rid of that but collect whatever pollen may be stuck in there. I move all of it into one corner, then cut the corner of the bag to make it easier to sift. Then I put a small freezer bag into a bowl and spread it out, then put a dollar store strainer on top to dump the rough material in. Carefully dump the corner of the first bag into the strainer. Now tap the strainer several times to sift only the pollen into the final bag. I move the material around and tap a few times each go. Once I think I have it all I dump the plant material in the garbage and I'm left with nice clean/dry pollen in the small bag.
Sifting pollen into the smaller bag and uncut Blue Ripper x Harlequin Tri-pheno pollen:
4) To further reduce any moisture getting into the bag and stretch the pollen out a bit more. I mix about 4:1 Flour + Pollen. In this case I used about a teaspoon for both which gives me enough cut pollen to produce 100's of seeds for about 6 months. I don't know if it's strain specific but I've had a couple of strains that after 6 months produced almost nothing to only a few seeds in comparison to fresh pollen. I use 6 months as the cut-off point just to be sure, again, it's a long process, nothing like waiting a couple of months for a handful of seeds. If you end up wanting to work a line, clone the male. You'll want it for back crossing later or just hitting new crosses but 6 months goes by quick in the chucking world.
Final product is pollen mixed with flour and ready to use:
For short term storage (2-3 weeks) I just keep it in the fridge, longer term I freeze it as follows. Take a large mason jar or any jar with a good seal. Fill it half-way with rice, put the pollen bag in, fill the rest of the jar with rice. This keeps it viable for longer, reduces chances of getting moisture into the bag. When I want to pollinate I take the jar out, remove the bag, open the bag and let it sit for about 24 hours before chucking. Anywhere dark/cool and with no direct moving air seems to work fine. I've thawed out and used the same pollen a few times with no issues using this method.
Cheers