When To Pull Male(s) To Prevent Complete Seeding

I'm keeping one male to harvest some pollen from for selective bud pollination. I'm 9 days into 12/12 and I just chopped all but one of my males. This is the furthest I've ever let a male get and I'm amazed at how quickly this guy is getting nut sacks. What I want to know is when do I need to start watching to pull this guy into isolation? Keeping him separated from the girls is going to be a pain in the ass so I don't want to have him isolated longer than necessary. However, I absolutely do not want to pollinate all my bud.

So what are the signs that you need to isolate that male before he impregnates all your girls?

Also, any tips on how to harvest pollen and selectively pollinate? I've read about using a paint brush with all your fans off, etc.

Can I just get some pollen from the first "bananna" that opens and then chop him? Or do I need to keep him around?

the male stamen, what everyone always refer to as banana's, will start to grow this small thread like piece and they will grow out on the end of the string like piece.. once you see this, you know you've only got like 3 days or so till they shoot their loads..
i'd say all in all, once sacs develop you've got around 10 days to 2 weeks till the do what they do.. fyi, i'm not talking about the first sign of male preflowers but rather when you see fully developed males sacs start counting then..
the thread thing though i find to be a much better indicator as it's within a few days of seeing them that they're going to blow ime..

As you'll soon see, some pollen sacks open very early. Others take their time. Why not just isolate the male for a few days, shake the base to collect some pollen on some newspaper, and refrigerate it until u need it? There's no difference in early or late pollen, except freshness and therefore viability.

Just place the pollen in a plastic bag and cover a nice bud with it, sealing the bag and then give it a good shake. Let it sit on there a few hours. Carefully remove it and shake the branch, with fans off, to catch the loose stuff. You'll be set.....

SSHZ said:

As you'll soon see, some pollen sacks open very early. Others take their time. Why not just isolate the male for a few days, shake the base to collect some pollen on some newspaper, and refrigerate it until u need it? There's no difference in early or late pollen, except freshness and therefore viability.

Just place the pollen in a plastic bag and cover a nice bud with it, sealing the bag and then give it a good shake. Let it sit on there a few hours. Carefully remove it and shake the branch, with fans off, to catch the loose stuff. You'll be set.....

Click to expand...

yeah sshz.. my c99 males showed super early and caught me well off guard as it was the first time i ever got any beans in a grow, ever.. i had let one go a bit too long and it managed to get a few buds seeded.. not many, maybe 10 for the entire grow or so of a few ounces.. just enough to piss me off, and enough for me to learn my lesson to keep an early eye out for males..

Yup......it's happened to all of us at one time or another. People HATE seeds so I really keep an extra eye out for bananas in flowering!

just make covers for your males out of typing paper you tape together and seal it up so you don't get any leaks. that way, your plants still get light as well as can breathe where plastic would cause mold as well as ruin your pollen. then,m when you want to pollinate, take your male out, or cut off it's branches you'd individually wrapped, collect the pollen in another room or even outdoors, and then, you can just use the paintbrush tech on as many buds as you want pollinated, and even use multiple males. that's the way i'm doing it next time as i'd like some sinsemillia for once. i like the idea of using more than one male at a time. just label the buds you pollinate, and you shouldn't get too much pollen leakage if you're careful and don't use a fan when you're painting pistils.

Luckily I closed the door on my room and watched the airflow. With it finally getting cold, I had to close my A/C vent and just leave the passive intake open. This is blowing down directly on the male that is upwind of all my other plants. I'm going to rearrange that soon.

I had no idea how early males would start dropping pollen. I hope I got him out soon enough. I guess I'll just have more seeds than I planned for if I didn't. I decided to clone him in case I mess up and don't get any seeds this time.

Here's something I didn't expect:



These are two clones I took from the male about three weeks into flower. I was worried that the pollen I collected earlier and stored in the fridge wouldn't be viable after a couple weeks of storage so when I took clones, I grabbed two from the male. One of the male clones is looking really bad but the other one you see in the picture has grown three inches and continued to produce nutsacks that are opening and dropping pollen.

Most of the pistols I brushed with saved pollen mixed with rice flower weren't withering so I've taken a tiny amount of pollen from this little guy and the pistols I've hit with it have withered! So this may be an excellent way to keep pollen available. The other interesting thing is that this is in my veg closet which is running 16/8! Curious if anyone else has experienced anything like this.

The clones are in a self-watering coco starter tray.

I'm happy to report that my attempt at limited pollination was successful. My male clone is still producing pollen!!! Not sure what to do about him.

Nice, thanks for that, now I have a way to save male pollen. without it being in my other rooms.