Stay of execution of my males....so now what?

Ok I have alot of good seedlings under the lights right now...they have good air, water, and soil.

I have lost a number of gardens to theft, symphilids, rust other mistakes over the last year since I have donned my green thumb. My seeds are very limited and some of the strains that I have just germinated I can't find anywhere else.

So my question is how do I keep my males in the house without pollinating my females in the same house till I am ready to actually pollinate?

Can I keep them on 24/7 to keep their little balls from dropping?

Has anyone successfully kept males in the same house as females maybe in seperate boxes with a hepa filter or something? I really want to preserve this strain in my garden so I can bring the strains back at another time..

Thanks,
Winks

why dont you clone your favorite strains and keep a mother, would be much easier than breeding, or you could try stressing your females into hermie to get female pollen to make female seeds for further use in the future, theres a good post by zandor in the faq forum about feminized seeds

Males will flower regardless of the light cycle, so I don't know that there's any really easy answer. But a box with a HEPA filter that you keep as far as is possible from the females might work, like opposite side of the house, on a different floor, with the filter, and behind a closed door. That should at the very least minimize the amount of pollen that gets to your females. If you try it, and it works, please let us know, as I'd like to do the same thing at some point. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by caliorbust

why dont you clone your favorite strains and keep a mother, would be much easier than breeding, or you could try stressing your females into hermie to get female pollen to make female seeds for further use in the future, theres a good post by zandor in the faq forum about feminized seeds

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The reason I"m trying to seed this crop is that I can't find anywhere to get this strain again. Not many people have had the chance to try starfruit or ABC so if I get a male, I can pick the strongest and breed with a female and preserve the strain. I will be able to store the seeds and then be able to introduce more strains to my garden. I have very limited space for even flowering and would like to have more than 5-6 seeds total for the strains that work on my neurological pain.

After breeding then I can send away for some other strains and start those.

When you breed a hermie you risk your line being suseptable to being a hermie as well. Feminized seeds are nice and easy, but I do worry about keeping a strain stable with only one set of dna....besides I'm not willing to cut down my natural polyploid if it is a male. It is too special of a plant.

jam-
I'm thinking a "sealed" box on a floor below will be ok. I'll look into the hepa filter....is there a way to combine the hepa filter with a carbon scrubber to keep the smell down? or will they still have to be seperate?

This should be an experience....this will be my first grow out of the closet and in a box...or should I say boxes!

Thanks for the info,
Winks

PS I don't have alot of info on breeding so anyone that would like to chime in here about any tips, I would really appreciate it.

just put your males in a different room from your flowering room thats all you have to do it doesnt have to be on a different floor or across the house.
when your males form pollen balls wait until they are about ready to release pollen and slip a bag over them to collect it and 12/12 lighting will most definatly help them develop faster so wouldnt be waiting for them to develop fully under 18/6 when you may need the pollen sooner.
then shut off the circulating fans you may have in your flowering room and place the bag with pollen over selected branches and shake it a few times or you can use a paint brush and brush the pollen on the pistols on the selected branches where you want seed, mist or spray the areas with water to wash away excess pollen before turning the fans back on.
you want to use fresh pollen as it has a short life span and is not viable for very long.

Bejay-

do I need to flower my females faster then the males? I was told you need to pollinate when the females are 4 weeks into 12/12.

I'm really excited to start my first breeding project. I thought growing itself was cool till I got me a natural poly, now I want to understand the genetics better.

Thanks for the info,

Winks

;)

depends on how many seeds you want would try to do it as early in flowering as possible obviously if you wait till 4 weeks there will be plenty of sites to pollinate but if your just looking for a few seeds you can pollinate earlier and if you want very few just pollinate the preflowers that show up along the mainstem above the internodes when the plants is mature most strains dont have many preflowers but there is a few that will preflower alot in a veg state.
if you want alot of seeds flowering the females about 1 week earlier would help but you would probably be fine even if you started them at the same time if you was just doing the preflowers you would want to start flowering the males first.

just let one of the males "flower" and you can harvest its pollen. it stores for a long time.

then when you want to rejuvinate the straing you pollinate a female with it.

of course make sure you keep it away from your females!