Pollen Collecting

[Tug]

Hey C-Ray, how would I best collect the pollen I have from a lone male I have (in it's own space), it is about to start opening it's sacs at about 3 - 3 1/2 weeks of 12 hr.
I do want to enclose it/harvest it so no stray pollen is floating through my place (I use the whole house for 'pass through' airflow for intake).
If you have time, I would also like to know how (and where to store it), and the length of it's viability.

peace - tug

[The Cannarchist]

Love your Avatar Tug,I was bought up to vitamin "E" and free party sound systems in the UK during the first summer of love rave parties 1988.....I'm getting old ..LOL

You are going to have to contain your male plant to stop stray pollen spreading.Do you have a space outdoors you can put it?

If so,here is a method of collection.

As the flowers start to open lay your plant down sideways and place newspaper under the plant ,the plant is OK to touch the floor.Every morning shake the plant gently and you'll see the pollen drop onto the paper.After each "Milking" pull out the newspaper and fold back together ,tapping the sides to get the pollen to fall into the crease.Pour off onto another piece of paper.Place your pollen ontop of a flouro if you can,this will dry out any moisture left from the plant.After 48 hrs of drying out place pollen in some waxproof paper/baking sheet,make an envelope with baking paper and add a teaspoon of rice or water crystals.Fold up and place in a mason jar with rice/crystals added as a desicant,usually an inch or so it the bottom will do.Then pop into the freezer for an infinite time until you need it.

Moisture is the pollen killer.......It will last a couple of years for sure like that.

Rave on!

TC

[c-ray]

I usually collect right onto waxpaper, tilt the waxpaper carefully and allow the pollen sacs to fall off leaving the yellow pollen behind...then stick the pice of waxpaper up in a dry space on top of a shelf, in the closet, etc. for a day or 2...then fold up the waxpaper and put it into a small envelope, label and put in a jar with rice in the fridge
I get 6 months viability more or less that way
you can also take the pollen and divide it with a razor blade and put it into a few gel-caps then into a vitamin bottle with some rice and into the freezer, use one gel cap when necessary, whenever you take the pollen out of the freezer let it sit out for an hour or two to defrost before applying to pistils
I've also put pollen into the freezer fresh without drying first and it was good for a year

you'll be amazed at how many pistils you can pollinate with a tiny bit of pollen
get a small natural bristle artist brush, dip into pollen ever so lightly and flick the brush near (usually slightly above) the pistils and you can watch the pollen disperse in the air and fall down onto the pistils if there is no air movement...if you pollinate outside you should do it when it is calm not windy otherwise you will lose a lot of pollen..

if you have a limited amount of pollen you can mix 2 part corn starch to one part pollen, the corn starch is light and floats in the air like pollen, if you use a corn starch-pollen mix be sure to wash it off later to avoid mold

wait 2-10 hours for pollination to set in, then mist the plant thoroughly, or stick it outside and let the morning dew take care of the pollen

if you are drawing intake air through the house you need to be careful
better to put it outside if possible, the morning dew will kill some of the pollen that sits on the leaves
you can always get creative and make a sealed box with a compact fluoro inside or something and stick a hepa filter intake on the box to create positive air flow through the hepa filter, if you need to keep the plant indoors..cannabis pollen is 25 microns roughly in size, hepa filters are supposedly 1 micron

if you have been exposed to live pollen you need to wash yourself and clothes down, take a shower, etc.

another trick is to cut off stems that have the male flowers that are about to ejaculate and put them in a vase or jar with water like you would do with cut flowers, the male sacs will continue to ripen and drop pollen and you can put some wax paper under the jar and let the pollen fall onto the wax paper and collect it that way, this way you can keep a male in the flower room and just snip off the floral clusters that are about to open and take them out to the garage or whatnot

so in closing there is no one best way to do pollination just got to be creative

[rabit]

Hi c-ray
I realize this thread is more than a year old lol but can you elaborate on...

"if you have been exposed to live pollen you need to wash yourself and clothes down, take a shower, etc."

I HOPE your talking about pollinating any local fems through contact...

I collected pollen for 2 weeks earlier this month (def breathed it and didn't scrub up either) and I haven't been feeling 100% lately...don't know just exactly what it is...should I be worried???

[c-ray]

yes that is what I meant but...
exposure to pollen can produce hay fever like symptoms in sensitive folks like watery eyes and sneezing fits, usually it goes away in a day or 2 after the pollination is over but if one is exposed to it daily for a couple of weeks then definitely it can slow a person down

[rabit]

Thanks for clearing that up c-ray...

Dammit, looks I've been POLLINATED...hope those guys weren't hermies...

[ghostryder]

notice an increase or decrease in the SEX drive?

[The Cannarchist]

Yep ,It don't feel good when you are sneezing all over your girlfriends back.....

[shadowlord]

Sneezing during sex is never any good. Interesting, but not something you try to do on purpose!
Not as bad as her coughing while you are in her though!

Sorry, just a random thought!

[rabit]

notice an increase or decrease in the SEX drive?

Hahaha...I felt so shitty I didn't really notice... but my wife didn't complain.

Next time I do that I'm gonna wear a face mask:o

[Alchemist]

good info here, thanks guys!!

[c-ray]

not sure if I mentioned this above, but nowadays when I am pollinating I like to use a good dust mask like the kind you find in a safety supply store for around 20 bucks, also like to wear some swimming goggles too...

[c-ray]

so I was thinking the other day a neat experiment would be look at some pollen under a microscope when it is drying and then save some pollen from different stages of dryness and put them in the freezer for like a year, then pull them out and try pollinating some large clones using pollen from each stage of dryness onto each clone and see which stage of dryness achieves the greatest fertility in long term storage
might even be able to accelerate the experiment by storing the collected pollens in a fridge
also store some pollen with co2 in the jar and compare that to a regular jar and I am also curious if it is possible to store pollen long term 8 or more feet underground where it is a constant temperature and humidity

[Green Supreme]

Can't win if ya don't play. Sounds worthy of an attempt. Peace GS