Male flowers aren't opening

Hi there, I've want to cross some lowryder #1 seeds and I've got a male and a female plant. The thing is that all the male flowers are falling from the male but without opening or releasing any pollen, what's going on ? I cut all the side branches of the male and left only the main tip (stem intact) in order to control the flowers but I don't think this should be the reason to drop the flowers without pollen, any ideas ?

Who knows? How long since flowers appeared? I find it takes about 3 weeks for them to start opening. You may have stressed the male out, they easily drop flowers. Just give it some time.

He has been flowering for 2-3 weeks. So you saying that when a male get stressed he drops the flowers without opening them ? That sucks!! I didn't know about that behaviour.

I don't know, when I collect pollen I cut the whole top off and put it in water, which I assume is pretty stressful. Is the female doing ok? What are your temp ranges like?

Never heard about cutting the whole tip and putting it in water, I guess if you say you used it, it works right ? could you tell me a bit more about it, how long is the tip ? how far in flower do you cut it ? how long until you get some pollen ? It sounds like an interesting way to do it

I took the males out of the box and they are now outside, beside another box so they don't get much light. The temps should be fine, during the day it's around 20-22ºC and at night is 18-20ºC.

Now he seems to be growing new balls so maybe it's recovering from the stress, not sure if those balls will end up giving some pollen. Maybe I cut it to late in flower and that's why the balls dropped ? Also the balls that dropped, they had some kind of dark green color, a bit brownish.

me too mate, i just cut the top 8" of and place in a vase of water, you will soon see some pollen.

welshsmoker said:

me too mate, i just cut the top 8" of and place in a vase of water, you will soon see some pollen.

Click to expand...

heheh that's funny, my whole plant is a little over 8" tall lol. It's a lowryder. What benefits do u find from cutting it? and do you leave that top in the box ?

Yeah, I was using an auto assassin. Once the flowers started and the petals pushed out and were about to pop open, I cut the whole stem off and put it through a hole in the bottom of a clear Dixie cup. Then the whole thing goes into a red Dixie up with water. Look up "collecting pollen". Some on here did a photo job of the same kind of collection system.

I cut all the branches way before they opened the balls so I guess jack ripa may be right. Today one of the new growing balls which has a nice green color (not as the previous balls) opened and gave me some pollen I already used it to pollinate one branch and probably he'll be opening a few more balls tomorrow. So I guess he was very stressed and now he's recovered.

Thanks for your help guys +rep for everybody!! ;P

Yeah, I have done the top and leave in water method as well. I have also seen a mistreated male drop many his first flowers unopened.

I've heard of people just crushing up unopened flowers and getting pollen anyways. Anyone else heard of this? Not obliterating them, just rolling them between your fingers.