When is the best time to pollenate

[neobud]

I want to totally seed out this entire grow. Is it best to let the females develope past preflower into full blown buds? Everything is the same strain and I have to BEEFY THICK ASS males I am using and all of the fems are bushy as hell and the healthiest plants I have ever seen anywhere, not bragging but dead serious.

SO when do I pollenate them? Since I want to maximize the seed output should I let the males have an orgy with my ladies with a fan on high or should I do it manually? The most important question I hace is when is the best time to let the fems get pollenated for maximum seeds?

Thanks in advance for any answers or help.

[UnNatuReal]

Hi neobud.

Best time to pollinate whole plant is when it have as much fresh pistils as possible.

By helping pistils to catch pollen with painbrush etc you probably get more seeds than by orgies with fan.

Good luck!

[SFC]

A good timeline to follow is to pollenate at around 3 weeks into flower. Then by day 53-60 you will have lots of viable seeds. If you want a little more bang send the males into flower a week before your females you will have alot more pollen to work with,and teh pollen will surely be mature. I had a Blueberry male once that was impotent compared to the White widow,and AK47 males of the same age.

[Dandaweedman]

Good answers. When I want to pollenate a known female I do it 5 weeks before harvest.

Most seeds will be ready in 3-4 so the extra week is a safety, and there will be enough pistils to make sure of a good seed run.

[SFC]

I forgot to mention that for most of us the ideal time to pollenate is when you have enough pistils available, but not so many that you end up with nothing but seeds which usually is around 3 weeks of flowering. Do not underestimate how pwerful the male pollen is. A little goes a long way normally. If you were to wait until week 4,or later to pollenate you will have twice as many seeds, but also far less smokeable bud. I guess it all depends on whether you are growing for smoke with seeds as an added bonus, or just growing strictly for seeds.:icon_smil

[peakguy]

maybe it's just me, but I have never had seeds mature in 3-4 weeks. My MO is to pollinize the bottom 1/3 of a female using a small paint brush (like kids use for watercolors) and to leave that bottom part of the plant for about a week past harvest to make sure all seeds get fully developed. Like SFC says, don't underestimate the power of the pollen; a little goes a long way. Using the method above, you can easily realize 100 seeds per plant without using the top colas at all. In fact, I just got a little over 100 Cosmic Nights seeds from my last harvest and they look great and ready to plant in the spring. Good luck.

[SFC]

Excellent addendum to my post Peakguy, and welcome to the site:thumbsup: Breeding can be one of the most satisfying aspect to growing IMO. Not only being able to grow your own crosses, but also gifting beans, and watching others grow your crosses is awesome. It can be a little tricky, but every thing you need to do can be accomplished by the third week of flowering. Also the male plants will usually not need sequestering until the 14th day of flowering, and then you really do not have to put them in an elaborate place, just a small area where you can put a compact floro. I used to large rubbermaid containers put together , with some vent holes.