i have some pollen saved as well in a film canister in my fridge. dont know how long its good for. the strain was very early flowering with sativa dominant high and a shorter structure. i been thinking about impregnating my tangerine dream which is a monster sativa dom with a huge stretch and an extremely long flower. hopefully the hybrids can exhibit a mix of the two traits.
fatboy what do you find when you breed? do you get a wide variety of phenos? any tips on when in the flowering cycle would be optimal times. i am thinking around week 3-5 seeing as the TD takes 10+ weeks.
go for it! pollinate a few of the lower buds. it can't hurt and you might make something special!
i've thought about when to impregnate a few times. as a tiny bit of pollen goes a long way, i wait until i see some budlets forming and paint a few of the lower ones with some pollin. the seeds don't take very long to mature, but the sooner you get started the better. 3 weeks after flower is about right. the buds don't have to be very large at this point. when they grow up, they will be full of seeds.
my favorite way of pollinating, is taking the male pod when it looks like it's about to pop, and rolling it between my fingers right over a bud. the pollin falls right where you want it to. i leave the pollin on, without disturbing the plant, for 15 mins or so (the pollin probably impregnates immediately but i wait just in case), then i take a watering can or spray bottle and water down that whole area of the plant to wash out any remaining pollin and then put the plant back into the flower room about 1/2 hour later. again, i'm just being really cautious.
sometimes i get seeds that grow plants that look almost identical (my S.A.G.E. and apollo 13 are good examples of this). time after time, you can easily pick out these genetics with a glance. not much difference in the high from plant to plant. with other genetics, super silver haze for example, i have several phenos, which is what i'm looking for with this genetic. 3 different looks and highs. i do have some F2s that are simply not as good as the parent plant. the F1s grow out and i love the high. i mean LOVE! i grow out the seeds and i never find that great high again. good high yes, great high, no! it's very annoying.
all you can do is pick what looks like a good male. i crush a leaf and smell it. i don't use males that are big and beautiful. that big, beautiful, woody male, will get you woody plant producing seeds. i want a bud producer with a quality high. it's hit and miss unless you get so into the breeding that it's obsessive. there's no fun in that!
i re-read that thread mentioned above. man that was some sweet bud. the swiss bliss is a good example of a couple of the F1 plants being stunning and never being able to find that plant again. i have a bunch of seeds though so i hope to find her again someday. my swiss bliss is a nice high, not a great one like their moms.