23 replies to this topic

[hyphaenation]

Hey folks, quick question...

I stored pollen from my best males in ziplock baggies , sucked the air out and wrapped with folded paper-towel and then double-bagged that and sucked air. Then put in a yogurt container and deep-freezed undisturbed for 1 year. Any chance it will still be viable ? I'm going to give it a try but I was just curious what the shelf-life is on freezer-stored pollen.

Any help appreciated.

[Kraven]

Pollen is [canna] viable for about six months tops without risk of any genetic anomolies. Any moisture will kill it so the key is to keep it with desiccants at as close to 0% humidity as possible in a zip lock snak bag at room temp in a darkened drawer. I like to store my pollen in a hand folded parchment paper sleeve and I apply it with a q-tip swab, you can hit 10 to 12 flowers with the same sweep and pollinate them all.

 

Peace.

 

K

[Myc]

You've piqued my interest. 

Only one way to find out if that pollen is still viable..............

Anxiously awaiting results. ;)

[Kraven]

oh yea fosure dust the hell outs them girls...if it isn't good it wont hurt them ;)

 

But if your specific breeding for a trait or a recessive expression of a trait you need to be on the ball with the dust. otherwise 6 months to a year and it should germ pretty reasonably.

[onediadem]

I am willing to bet you get seeds.

[hyphaenation]

Thanks for the replies. I'll dust some branches , mark them and then wait and see what happens. I was gong to use a small paint-brush but I think I'll try Kraven's Q-tip idea.

Edited by hyphaenation, 25 July 2018 - 07:45 PM.

[Kraven]

I have bumped the paint brush one to many times and accidentally dusted plants. Unless I'm doing a Fgen seed run I just hit the pre-flowers so my buds not all seeded since thats enough to net 20 - 25 beans easy. Remember ...a VERY little goes a very long way....one little tiny male can hit 12 -15 girls around him and seed them from stalk to cola right quick and with just a puff of breeze.

[hyphaenation]

Trying to figure out if I want to back-breed my #1 strain with its own father from last year (the pollen in the freezer) or use one its siblings (I started some #1 seedlings and will sex them early to get a good male). The crossed strain has more big budding genetics then the original which the year old pollen is from possibly , although original #1 mom had huge buds.

[hyphaenation]

I took the Frozen pollen of the #1 and tinkled it on Lower branches of #1 and then used a bread tie that was marked with the strain name. It wasn't windy, and I tried to be careful not to over dust.

I also took Poland from the lime skunk mail that I have off property, and tinkle that on my best lime skunk that's already flowering. Tomorrow I'm going to make a cross of the most sativa number one X lime skunk.

[Phungivore]

hope it works hyph. never used pollen older then week old so no idea. never did breeding, just some pollen chucking in my past. worked out ok, before i lost the seeds from that i wanted to learn better how to breed as i had a few that where keepers. be nice to learn more what needs be done, as would been nice to have had a stable version of that particular individual keeper plant.

[hyphaenation]

Year old frozen pollen failed to form any seeds ... I tried a few times. Maybe if it was mixed with flour before freeze storing? Anyhow now just using pollen from this year for micro-crosses (one or 2 small lower branches each). Those seeds took right away and are swelling large.

Edited by hyphaenation, 22 August 2018 - 03:28 PM.

[Phungivore]

WIN SOME LOSE SOME, thanks for sharing

[Myc]

Bumping this thread to offer my own anecdotes concerning pollen.

 

First off, I'm nobody and just observing, emulating, and basically "hacking" life. 

 

The way I save pollen is to place a paper bag (like used for wine bottles) over a flowering branch of a male plant. 

Then I snip off the branch and loosely close the end of the bag - 

Allow the branch to dry inside the bag

Bang the branch around inside the bag (once it's bone dry) - Then, I seal the top of the paper bag with a few folds and a staple. I usually make several of these. I store all of the wine-bottle bags in yet another paper bag kept in the refrigerator. 

 

Just like Hyphae did, I created a cross of my own by pollinating a female Amnesia Haze with some pollen from Cinderella 99 (which is part of Amnesia's genetic makeup to begin with). Just open the paper bag and slip it over a chosen branch of a female. Give it a few gentle taps and and maybe a twist or two and the job is done. No need for applicators of any kind. 

The cross turned out to still be quite heavy on the Sativa side with long, skinny leaves and medium stature at about 4 ft. in height. She's a bit tall for the grow room and had to be leaned over to fit into the head-space provided. 

 

I had retained one bag of pollen in the refrigerator for one year with this experiment in mind. A few days ago, I attempted to pollinate the resultant crossed female back to the year-old pollen. 

If she produces seed I'm wondering how to describe the plant and may need a little help. 

Amnesia Haze x Cinderella 99 is the parentage of the cross I'm working with. So.......

Amnesia 99 x Cinderella 99 ?? 

This is where I get lost with all of the names and distance from parentage etc. 

 

Anywho, I'll follow-up here at least with the results of the year-old, refrigerated pollen. 

[mushit]

Thanks for bumping this, Myc.

 

Hyph, It was a good try though.  I have kept pollen for around 8 months before tossing, assuming it would not pollinate anything.

When I read the first post I was hoping it would work.

 

Myc, your way of harvesting pollen is much easier than what I have been doing.

I grow outside and I like to get rid of the male as quickly as possible, but also harvest some pollen from him.

As a result, my technics involve a tub with some glass to fit the bottom.

I put the male flowers in a large plastic cup filed with water with foil on top.

After trimming and poking the stems through the foil, I let them go in the tub.

 

I pollinate with a Q-Tip as well.  Gotta harvest some Sensi.  :)

[hyphaenation]

Thanks for bumping and adding to conversation. One thing I failed to do is thoroughly remove all air from the vessel the pollen was in and place that in a second dish with a desiccant... All the how-to's I saw used a container in a container with the outer one containing a desiccant to absorb any stray moisture.  I think it's important how you get your pollen out of your male flowers. I hung them to dry a bit and let the pollen expel itself. Problem with that is pollen only lives 24 to 48 hours and it can die pretty quick. I think next time I won't do any hanging of male flowers , just collect it as it falls from the live flower and then immediately container that , suck air and add desiccant... then into the freezer in a more timely manner.

Looking forward to any and all you folks ave to add.  

[mushit]

It would be nice for pollen to live two or maybe three years.

I don't think there is any hope for year old or older pollen to be able to survive.

The way I look at it is, I will use the pollen I have harvested, pollinate my plants, then toss it.

It has done it's purpose.

 

I just wish I could find some viable spores in my 10 yr old prints!

[hyphaenation]

True enough.

Can also keep a prized male alive under a 24 hour floro if you really wanted the genetics from him...  Even without the year old pollen working , I surely did make a shit-ton of seeds with current-flowering males that were chilling in remote locations for observation. I like to go up to the swamp every spring and host my best male there surrounded by select marked females then at the end of the cycle I get several fully seeded mares from my best stud. The offspring of those I run in my yard , culling the males. Now I have way more lines that I could possibly experiment with and give them away on the promise the person will report back good or bad...

Edited by hyphaenation, 02 March 2019 - 10:10 PM.

[mushit]

Hee hee.

Yep

It gets to the point where you wonder what you are going to do with all those seeds!

[hyphaenation]

Now...to keep them seperate and marked.

[Dipole]

A few years back,

before I started for follow the advice of one of Grassroot's wise men of yore

and only grow professional breeds,

I tried collecting and saving pollen.

I agree with Kraven, 6 months tops.

The pollen has to be able to flow around in the bag like some sort of magical fluid.

So the bag must be a quality freezer bag and handled like eggs when cold.

One little crack in the bag and the pollen will get moist...