Feminizing Seed Spray - Advice?

Hi!

After more than a decade of buying seeds online and occasionally taking clones, I'm done with it. Its expensive and its dicey getting them shipped in. And now many seedbanks no longer offer guaranteed shipping to Oz.

So I'm considering buying a seed feminizing spray to induce male flowers so I can collect pollen and make seeds so I never have to buy seeds again.

I'm considering this product:

There's no reviews anywhere for this particular brand but I'm assuming its a similar product to Tiresias Mist which is referenced a number of times in this forum and seems to work well.

I'm just wondering how I should use it?

I know it comes in a spray bottle, but spraying seems super wasteful with unavoidable overspray. I did read some advice in one of the Tiresias Mist threads saying to use a q-tip or similar when you start running low to help conserve it, and to rub it on the stems and not the leaves?

So I figure its probably best to q-tip it on from square one and make it go as far as possible? And the stem thing is legit?

I'm germinating some seeds as we speak, will veg for 4-5 weeks and then flower so I'll need to get this within the next few weeks. I'm germing 9 seeds total of 9 different strains so if I can manage to get some pollen from three plants then I'll have a really good selection of crosses to sample for years to come.

I've got room for 6 plants in a DWC setup, so I'll do the other three in pots in canna terra pro which will allow me to remove them when they start to produce pollen. This way I can harvest the pollen and selectively apply it to specific buds or branches avoiding an open pollination thing where I just get loads of seeds in all of my bud.

Anyways... Thanks!

Never heard of it as most people use colloidal silver or STS etc for inducing male flowers.

@xtsho what is it that you use?

i got a bottle of colloidal silver. it works pretty good. you isolate one branch, or one plant, spray it, let it dry, then you can put it back in with the rest. if you can't move it to spray it, use cardboard or garbage bags to keep it off of your other plants. i sprayed it once a day for two weeks and the entire branch grew hermie flowers. it does stress the branch out, and it isn't particularly pretty, but it works, you get the feminized pollen you need, and seeds as well if you don't harvest the pollen quickly enough

jondamon said:

Never heard of it as most people use colloidal silver or STS etc for inducing male flowers.

@xtsho what is it that you use?

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I use STS. I've used both. I prefer STS. You can't get the chemical's in some countries though.

Sts is generally accepted to be the best route for making fems

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i got a bottle of colloidal silver. it works pretty good. you isolate one branch, or one plant, spray it, let it dry, then you can put it back in with the rest. if you can't move it to spray it, use cardboard or garbage bags to keep it off of your other plants. i sprayed it once a day for two weeks and the entire branch grew hermie flowers. it does stress the branch out, and it isn't particularly pretty, but it works, you get the feminized pollen you need, and seeds as well if you don't harvest the pollen quickly enough

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Cs works on most plants not all will reverse tho some only work via sts cheese is a prime example

Sts is great and you should be able to source what you need right there in Australia from photography stores. There are some great threads out there on the subject-Tony Green has a good one on IC mag with instructions on mixing and concentration. You'll probably be able to mix a lifetime supply for the price of one bottle of premixed stuff and it will probably work better as well.

I tried Tiresias Mist. Got some nanners in the area I was spraying, but they were shooting blanks - pollen pods were totally empty

Thanks everyone.

I method I was previously aware of was the colloidal silver route. After deciding I wanted seeds I looked it up and saw people were having troubles. So that put me off the CS method. In those threads people mentioned that T mist stuff and said they had better results. Thats when I looked up the other stuff. And away I went...

I had never heard of silver thiosulfate, but after looking it up briefly it certainly looks like the way to go and yeah its definitely availble.

Thanks again!

I’m working on some ball building now. I used CS. This is my second attempt. 1st time I was able to successfully retrieve pollen & store it, but the wife cleaned the freezer… well… yep.. she tossed it.. I wanted to toss her, but I love her… so she gets to stay.

I’ve been spraying daily since the flip. (Almost) we are 4 weeks in & I’m hoping these nuts are full of viable pollen
(Lol)
as I planned to pollinate the tent with it. At first flowers started to form as they normally would, but the treated branch is fattening up faster.

Well I've gone the STS route as it really does seem like a winner. I've got some on the way. Two bottles of 100ml part A and B that mixes up and dilutes out to about a 1000ml. Seems like it should be plenty.

Now I'm thinking the plan is I'll probably top the plants after a couple of weeks veg, then clone the cut off tops. Once they're rooted I'll pop the clones in their own little pot and veg for another week and then flip them along with the main plants in the tent. That way they'll stay tiny, and more importantly, I can take them out of the tent when they start to flower so they wont just open pollinate everything in the tent.

The seeds I'm working with are leftovers and unused freebies. Not to most ideal selection to work with but not the worst either. There's a fair range of genetics so I should in turn be able to get a good range of genetics in the seeds that will hopefully serve me for years to come.

Thanks again everyone.

If I remember and can be bothered, I'll come back to this thread in a couple of months for an update.

Cheers!

GangaDownUnder said:

Well I've gone the STS route as it really does seem like a winner. I've got some on the way. Two bottles of 100ml part A and B that mixes up and dilutes out to about a 1000ml. Seems like it should be plenty.

Now I'm thinking the plan is I'll probably top the plants after a couple of weeks veg, then clone the cut off tops. Once they're rooted I'll pop the clones in their own little pot and veg for another week and then flip them along with the main plants in the tent. That way they'll stay tiny, and more importantly, I can take them out of the tent when they start to flower so they wont just open pollinate everything in the tent.

The seeds I'm working with are leftovers and unused freebies. Not to most ideal selection to work with but not the worst either. There's a fair range of genetics so I should in turn be able to get a good range of genetics in the seeds that will hopefully serve me for years to come.

Thanks again everyone.

If I remember and can be bothered, I'll come back to this thread in a couple of months for an update.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

You don't need to mix it all up at once. Just adjust the proportions to make smaller batches because once it's mixed it only lasts for about 3 months and is recommended to use within a month. The two parts should last for years on their own but the final product, STS, degrades fast. A 250ml batch is enough to do a one branch spray. Concentrate on the nodes and if a regular plant make your first spray a couple days before you flip to 12/12. With autos start spraying at the first sign of flowering and every 4 days for both types.

Took me ages to find the sodium thiosulphate and was only $22 for 500g but Porolator charged me $69 for the shipping as it went as hazardous material. I just made my own silver nitrate with an 8g - .9999 silver coin from the post office and some hot concentrated nitric acid.

Don't try this at home!





12g of AgNO3 hot off the press! I added a bit of acid to finish off the coin after this pic.

Hi Folks! Follow-up question I can't find a definitive answer-to in conducting my own research:

Use STS to reverse a female & collect resulting pollen - tick.

Question: Can the resulting pollen be suspended in water & sprayed on the recipient flower-sites with good results, or should it otherwise be judiciously-applied with a paint brush etc. to the target the areas I want to produce seeds?

I'm currently one-handed & want to keep the wheels turning with what I'd planned before I broke my collarbone into 3 pieces (fucking dogs!).

I can get the Mrs involved to an extent, but she's not as "interested" in the project as I am & want to make it as simple as possible for her.

TIA!

TerryTeacosy said:

Hi Folks! Follow-up question I can't find a definitive answer-to in conducting my own research:

Use STS to reverse a female & collect resulting pollen - tick.

Question: Can the resulting pollen be suspended in water & sprayed on the recipient flower-sites with good results, or should it otherwise be judiciously-applied with a paint brush etc. to the target the areas I want to produce seeds?

I'm currently one-handed & want to keep the wheels turning with what I'd planned before I broke my collarbone into 3 pieces (fucking dogs!).

I can get the Mrs involved to an extent, but she's not as "interested" in the project as I am & want to make it as simple as possible for her.

TIA!

Click to expand...

Use a paint brush and brush it on. Do not mix it with water.

xtsho said:

Use a paint brush and brush it on. Do not mix it with water.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, it's probably not the response I was hoping-for, but will aquiesce to superior knowledge with this stuff under the circumstances.....

Why no water/spray (for my own edification, please)?

TerryTeacosy said:

Thanks mate, it's probably not the response I was hoping-for, but will aquiesce to superior knowledge with this stuff under the circumstances.....

Why no water/spray (for my own edification, please)?

Click to expand...

"Our results indicate that the pollen of most species was susceptible to damage by water. Less than one-quarter of the species had pollen with a relatively high resistance against water, implying that rain may directly reduce the fertility of unprotected pollen."


Pollen resistance to water in 80 angiosperm species: flower structures protect rain-susceptible pollen

xtsho said:

"Our results indicate that the pollen of most species was susceptible to damage by water. Less than one-quarter of the species had pollen with a relatively high resistance against water, implying that rain may directly reduce the fertility of unprotected pollen."


Pollen resistance to water in 80 angiosperm species: flower structures protect rain-susceptible pollen

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02925.x

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Thank you.
I read the entire article, but it didn't take long for me to get the underlying message.
'Looks like the Mrs' make-up brushes are going to be temporarily re-purposed. I'll buy her new ones once this project is done.

TerryTeacosy said:

Thank you.
I read the entire article, but it didn't take long for me to get the underlying message.
'Looks like the Mrs' make-up brushes are going to be temporarily re-purposed. I'll buy her new ones once this project is done.

Click to expand...

Make sure they're clean and dry.

Good luck

TerryTeacosy said:

Thank you.
I read the entire article, but it didn't take long for me to get the underlying message.
'Looks like the Mrs' make-up brushes are going to be temporarily re-purposed. I'll buy her new ones once this project is done.

Click to expand...

I just use a Q-Tip and take a pin to fluff up the end a bit. Dip into pollen then tap once to knock off any clumps back into the vial tehn tap it over the buds you want to make seeds on. It can take 4 or 5 weeks before balls start to form and another couple of weeks before pollen begins to drop so keep that in mind. You want to have a plant to be dusted waiting until you see balls at least before flipping it to flower then dust some buds about 3 weeks into flower. If you want to just do a branch on a plant remove it from the grow room then cover it with a garbage bag if a big plants with just the branch to be dusted sticking out. Dust the buds and leave it sit for 12 hours then spray everything down good with water to deactivate the pollen before removing the bag and putting the plant back into the flowering space. Ignore that if it's just the one plant and you want to dust all the buds.

Thanks, but there seems to be a bit of a mixed-message from you here.

I've made reg. seeds in the past without problems. My question was specifically about creating feminised seeds using STS-produced pollen & how to use it to best-efficiency & how to get buy-in from my Mrs (make-up brushes may have to be sacrificed to the cause).

I only have one hand/arm available atm.......