Please Help! F*#cking pollen!

[jmo124]

Hi there guys, first post here and I'm looking for some help:

My girls are approaching day 1 of their 8th week of flowering and I've discovered they've been pollinated by a stress-induced hermie - we didn't catch it in time and can see a few seeds on girls nearby.

I'm new to the world of gardening but as I understand it pollination is to be avoided because a pollinated plant will divert all its energy to seed production. From what it looks like, most of the plants' buds have developed and the pollination occurred after this development took place... I'm hoping this is the case. Unfortunately I can't upload photos to help you help me but I'm just looking for some information specific to the timeline in which our girls got 'violated' :

Will we observe a decrease in potency?

Will we be able to use the seeds from the pollinated females?

Are we fucked?!

Pardon the language but its a little somber around camp at the moment... any insight is appreciated!!!

-Jmo

jmo124 Reviewed by jmo124 on 10-16-2010. Please Help! F*#cking pollen! Hi there guys, first post here and I'm looking for some help: My girls are approaching day 1 of their 8th week of flowering and I've discovered they've been pollinated by a stress-induced hermie - we didn't catch it in time and can see a few seeds on girls nearby. I'm new to the world of gardening but as I understand it pollination is to be avoided because a pollinated plant will divert all its energy to seed production. From what it looks like, most of the plants' buds have developed Rating: 5

[Prodaytrader]

yes to all questions! Get the hermie out of the space. All those white airs are there for a reason and you just gave them a reason to exist. I'd almost be tempted to tell you wash the plants, but I have no real experience with that. I can tell you this, I have had a hermie and the entire crop was ruined. Not much else I can add to that.

[headshake]

Will we observe a decrease in potency?

no, you shouldn't. especially since it occurred (at what seems to be) so late in flower.

Will we be able to use the seeds from the pollinated females?

yes....and they will be 100% female....but they could also have a tendency to hermie too. so use at your own discretion. for what it's worth though, this is how feminized seeds are made. by stressing ladies via light, food etc and making them produce male parts. but since the DNA is from a 100% female, whether the plant pollinates itself or another, the offspring has to be 100% female. granted, top notch breeders have healthy strains and do this on purpose.

Are we fucked?!

YES!!! not really, just kidding. i couldn't resist.



now, if you can answer some questions for us....

how big do the seeds look? are the bracts split yet? pop a seed out, what color is it?

what color are the majority of your pistils?


-shake

[jmo124]

how big do the seeds look?
-fairly small I guess?

are the bracts split yet? pop a seed out, what color is it?
-most of them are green, the seedage doesn't look to be too bad from the outside (though I'm sure when we crack it open we'll find a lot) and the buds actually still seem to be getting fatter.

what color are the majority of your pistils?
-beginning of week 8: still some white pistils, most have turned though

[Prodaytrader]

maybe I am confused about how pollination works, but it is my understanding that every single one of those pistols is seeking a pollen drop and once that happens the plant quits producing resin. The resin is in an effort to get pollen to stick to it. For the all the plant knows there is pollen in the air but it keeps blowing away, which is why the plant continues to try harder and harder to produce resin in an effort to get pollen to stick to it. I suppose whatever crystals and resins that present will stay, but how can it continue to produce new resin? What do I know?

I do know that the seeds are gonna be worth keeping so let them continue to grow and harvest them as most if not all should be females which is what they called fem'ed seeds. This is exactly how they create them.

I dont think the bud is gonna be worth doing anything special with as it will be full of seeds. My hermied crop was not at all worth smoking so I cooked it.

[headshake]

how big do the seeds look?
-fairly small I guess?

are the bracts split yet? pop a seed out, what color is it?
-most of them are green, the seedage doesn't look to be too bad from the outside (though I'm sure when we crack it open we'll find a lot) and the buds actually still seem to be getting fatter.

what color are the majority of your pistils?
-beginning of week 8: still some white pistils, most have turned though

doesn't sound like you have much to worry about. from the answers your provided those seeds sound very immature (beans can take anywhere from ~3-6 weeks to mature) so pollination didn't occur too long ago. i doubt you are going to find a bunch of seeds inside. if it was that bad they would be everywhere visibly.

if most of the pistils have changed from white that means that they are no longer viable. so all of those calyxes connected to those pistils cannot produce seeds (if not already pollinated of course). the pistils would have died back very quickly if you had a massive pollination.

i don't think you have any worries bro, you should be just fine.

maybe I am confused about how pollination works, but it is my understanding that every single one of those pistols is seeking a pollen drop and once that happens the plant quits producing resin. The resin is in an effort to get pollen to stick to it. For the all the plant knows there is pollen in the air but it keeps blowing away, which is why the plant continues to try harder and harder to produce resin in an effort to get pollen to stick to it. I suppose whatever crystals and resins that present will stay, but how can it continue to produce new resin? What do I know?

I dont think the bud is gonna be worth doing anything special with as it will be full of seeds. My hermied crop was not at all worth smoking so I cooked it.

the resin on a plant is not for catching pollen. it is a possibility that it might occasionally help, but the common consensus about resin is that it's to help the plant ward off bugs and to possibly help alleviate some of the UV that the plant receives. the pistils are responsible for catching the pollen. pistils are essentially straws, that catch the pollen and move it to the calyx, where the egg will be fertilized and the seed will grow until ripe and the bract split, and eventually the seed will fall out.

if a plant were to get massively pollinated it will stop producing flowers, as flowers' only jobs are to catch pollen (pistils/calyxes being part of the female flower). once the plant is pollinated there is no need to produce more flowers, as that part of it's life cycle is over.

i suppose it's also possible for a plant that's been massively pollinated to stop producing resin too.

think about it though, people will seed once branch of a plant and the rest is sinsemilla bud. the un-pollinated bud doesn't lack potency.

you ever get a bag of some top flight shit and find a seed or two in it? did the potency or quality suffer?


-shake

[nugssgalore]

I remember the day when the only weed available was Mexican sh*t that was full of seeds and nobody thought anything of it...you just cleaned the seeds out and smoked it anyway! It got you high and you also had some seeds to plant.

Nowadays everything is so specialized it seems ridiculous unless you are a licensed grower for dispensaries, what difference does it make?

The same thing happened to one of my plants, hermied, got slightly pollinated very late in the cycle and I thought it was making seeds, just looked kind of weird so I cut part of it thinking green seeds but then i couldnt find any, left the rest of the plant. It's still sticky and bottom part getting bigger.

The rest of my plants look normal with fat colas.

Can't figure out how to post a pic....are there instructions somewhere?

[Prodaytrader]

"you ever get a bag of some top flight shit and find a seed or two in it? did the potency or quality suffer?"

ya that sort of popped into my head earlier. So then it might be a fair statement to say that at the point of pollination, the plant should stop producing resin and flowers, which would lead me to think that one might want to stop growing at that point. However I dont know how this would effect the present trichs and if there is a curing process that goes on while the plant is still alive. The crystals turn amber, so is that because they are degrading or because they are changing? I'm too confused...breeding was never something I was all that interested in. Maybe in another year or two. LOL

I must have pollinated early then because my plants never did produce all that much resin or THC. I was sorely unhappy with my first grow.