harvesting pollen

Hoping to acclimatize some stuff I'm growing.
Need to make seed and wondered how early pollen is viable as I want to cull males early yet hang on go some pollen.
Do flowers have to be open or can you cut early and let flowers bloom in a vase somewhere far from females?

Also I'm not sure at what point of female bud development to pollinate.

Very grateful for any knowledge.
Thanks.

Wait for the pollen sacs to start opening before cutting them off the plant. They'll ripen at different times. Generally, you shouldn't have to do more than barely wiggle a mature one, for it to fall off. If you have to pull it, it's probably still not mature, and will have a lot of moisture.

You can pollinate as soon as you start seeing thick, healthy, white pistils (hairs) on the female.

After pollination, it should take about a month or so to have mature seeds.

Thanks so much for the info.
Obviously I am worried about allowing a male to mature in proximity to my females.
Here's a scheme, curious if you think it smart;
Remove all males from garden early except a single good specimen.
Prune to nothing but one or two tops and some fan leaves to support them.
Watch like a hawk and bag the tops at first hint of blossoms ripening. Allow another week then pull him and harvest pollen.

You can do that, but you might miss a few pollen sacs opening up though, even for just a few hours.

I don't know how your garden/grow-op is set up, but if you could remove whatever makes you wanted, and still keep them growing (they need much less light than flowering females) until the pollen sacs start to open, you can then do all of your pollen collecting outside of your grow room/area. That way, you can pollinate individual branches, and still have the rest of your female plants grow seedless bud for consumption.

Once you have your pollen collected, take one of your females and remove it from the others. Carefully sprinkle some of the pollen on the white hairs of a couple branches, and then let the plant sit, away from the others, overnight in a room without much airflow. The next day, spray down the whole plant with distilled water in your spray bottle, to kill any loose pollen, and to prevent the entire thing from being pollinated, and then you can put it back in your tent. Only the parts that were pollinated overnight will grow seeds. The other pollen will die.

Brilliant info on pollination method. Thanks.
I'm doing and outdoor organic grow on private land in California.
Garden is small and sectioned. Clones from a good source in one area and a grove of bag seed in another. Companion veggies throughout.
Plants are in the ground and too tight to be dug and moved. Which I'd why I thought about trying take a male to bloom but have him wear a condom.
Do you think a cut of blooms taken early could continue to live in water with some food or rooting hormone and ripen enough to use?
Check my grow journal if you like.
All the best, mate.

No problem, man. And nice, Cali's great for outdoor buds.

How big is your land? Cannabis plants can pollinate each other over pretty long distances. I'd be vigilant with your bagseed plants, because they have a good chance of having come as a result of a "hermie", and may hermie themselves, and possibly pass on that trait. You wouldn't want that pollen getting on your nice clones and messing up the seeds.

I have heard of people cutting branches with pollen sacs that are close to maturing, and putting them in a jar of water until they open up by themselves, but haven't done it myself, and imagine it would require good timing (on the cutting part).

Plenty of land and plenty of privacy.
Grow is small and legal and fenced.
We rescued and rehabbed a fawn last summer after she was mashed up by a truck. Now she's all better and big and hungry, so the garden is fenced.
Soil is poor out here. Dusty and compact but I work it hard, ammending organically and I managed a good bag seed grow last year. No hermies in 40 plants and nice yield from 22 females.
All different phenos, none bad, quite a few excellent.
But I appreciate the risk and watch carefully.
Just starting to show early preflowers but to soon to be sure.

Maybe I'll try the water trick, far away and down wind from ladies.

Cheers