Regular Seeds: what do i do??

[drjay44]

Recently placed seed order. I got 10 regular seeds as opposed to feminized. Now I know most people wait to identify the males and kill them off. How long till I can identify male vs female without prior experience? I am afraid that if I wait too long the males will pollinate the females. Do I have a safe window in which I, as a new grower can easily I.D. early enough to avoid pollination?

Oh yes, what if I let the males pollinate.

I would still get buds as well as seeds. Is this necessarily a bad thing since I don't want to do a whole clone/mother plant deal at this time. Gives me lots of free seeds for future grows

 

[Connoisseurus Rex]

Well as far as identification I can't really help you as this is my first grow. As far as the seeds, you could remove the makes, collect the pollen, and knock up 1 branch to get seeds while still having seedless buds on the other branches. That is the route I'm going to take with my Maui and maybe my randoms if they do good. Best of luck to you.

 

[vostok]

Every Newbie should allow his males to pollinate his females, see it as a learning thing, its really no big issue, you just won't be able to buy some in so much as in most cases you would have a 2 year supply or more, easy to separate the bud from the seeds, just annoying is all. but you do have a window with pre flowers that show early to give you some indication of sex, ones with balls males, one with white hairs females, and both is hermies, always a good idea to keep some pollen in a jar in the freezer, you just never know when you want to experiment

 

[dopeydog]

naw bro dont let them pollinate unless you want heaps of questionable seed. it won't be as good as the parent not a chance, maybe a few in a hundred but not worth wasting time on.
like the other guy had said you have a few days after the males show before any small amount of pollen is released. they are easy to recognize look at some photos. after a crop or two you will be able to spot very simply.
good luck and don't stress it.

 

[GreatwhiteNorth]

I like the "fertilize a couple of branches" approach - that way you get the best of both worlds, plenty of bud AND seeds.

If you're unsure of the sex of a plant, refer to a couple of good pictures.
It helps a lot of us early in our newb career.

View attachment 2950977

G/L

 

[sikkinixx]

I can't think of why you would want to let your males pollinate unless you want to try your hand at breeding. I think it'll be pretty clear once they start to show their sex.

 

[CaretakerDad]

It is simply bad advice to tell a newbie to allow males in their garden. They have enough on their plate just keeping one or two plants alive until harvest without introducing pollen into the equation. I have been growing or over 20 years and would not think of allowing a male to reach maturity.

 

[justugh]

new guy

u have 2 choice ...............u can attempt to turn some of seeds/all of them to females with some chemical treatment (u will have to look this up it seems simple but i have never personal done it )

other choice is to grow them one at a time and sex as u go to avoid getting males in with females

as for sexing and all that here are 2 pages from a book that will help

 

[Dr. Who]

How about you sex your plants. Dump the males AND......

Get some SILVERTHIOSULPHATE and dose one branch. Let the branch go male/herm ( can have both on the branch ) If you only want to save a little pollen trim back most of the male "balls" and isolate the remainders near/to the end of the branch, close to the "balls" opening by tying a plastic sandwich bag shut over them. a couple of days after the "balls" open, shake the branch and cut it off before the bag. Shake again....Open carefully and with a SMALL camel hair paint brush (art brush not house brush) dipped into the pollen in the bag. Carefully brush the pollen onto another branch of female flowers on their little white "hairs" (pistils). Cover all the buds on that branch. Now let the seeds develop and mature on that branch AND,,,,,
VIOLA, you now have feminized seeds!

Keep in mind that dosing the branch may result in some male flowers appearing over the whole plant.....so if it has both (HERM) you can ISOLATE it alone and let nature take it's course and get the same feminized seeds.....or remove the male flowers from unwanted area's and continue on as above.
Silverthiosulphate here;
https://www.budresearch.com/product.php?xProd=35

 

[Connoisseurus Rex]

How about you sex your plants. Dump the males AND......

Get some SILVERTHIOSULPHATE and dose one branch. Let the branch go male/herm ( can have both on the branch ) If you only want to save a little pollen trim back most of the male "balls" and isolate the remainders near/to the end of the branch, close to the "balls" opening by tying a plastic sandwich bag shut over them. a couple of days after the "balls" open, shake the branch and cut it off before the bag. Shake again....Open carefully and with a SMALL camel hair paint brush (art brush not house brush) dipped into the pollen in the bag. Carefully brush the pollen onto another branch of female flowers on their little white "hairs" (pistils). Cover all the buds on that branch. Now let the seeds develop and mature on that branch AND,,,,,
VIOLA, you now have feminized seeds!

Keep in mind that dosing the branch may result in some male flowers appearing over the whole plant.....so if it has both (HERM) you can ISOLATE it alone and let nature take it's course and get the same feminized seeds.....or remove the male flowers from unwanted area's and continue on as above.
Silverthiosulphate here;
https://www.budresearch.com/product.php?xProd=35

But then you can't smoke the bud...

 

[Dr. Who]

Only the ONE branch you've sprayed!

 

[bird mcbride]

The males will always show well before they are ready to drop thier pollen. In experiments I done in the eighties I found that pollinated weed was more of a happy buzz than unpollinated weed. There truly isn't any harm in seeding your girls unless you plan to sell it. It's up to you on what you want to do.

 

[mrCRC420]

Use your pollen if you want to man....... you can let them use all of it, or you can collect what you want and use that...... or, toss yer males.... it's up to you. personally; I love free seeds from killer crossed strains; but that's just me dood.

 

[Dividedsky]

Bottom don't let males pollinate, kill them off. It takes time to grow but for a new grower you should be able to tell if its male or female within 2 weeks of flipping lights to 12/12 possibly sooner. You could also hit 12/12 almost immediately to determine sex, then you once you figure out which one are females you could put them back in vegetative state and grow to desired height then put them into flower(this is time consuming though). You should definitely get into cloning and that mother plant thing. Its real easy, I clone directly into soil and get great results. You just take clones from your plants. Put the plants in flower. Keeps plants and clones number labeled so you can track what clone came from what plant. So say you have 5 plants number plants 1-5. Veg 1-5 out. Once at a decent height take 2 clones from each plant. So you have 10 clones. 2 from each plant. So 2#1s,2#2s,2#3s,ect. So the original plants 1-5 have been put into flower. Only # 3 and #4 are female the rest are males. So you know to kill off plants 1,2,and 5 along with their clones. You keep#3 and# 4 clones and have 2 clones from #3 and #4 so you could put 1 of each of the clones(#3+#4) into flower and keep the other two clones from #3 +#4 as mother plants for future cuts. That way you will know #3+#4 are females and you wont have to worry about determining sex of plants and wasting time. Easy as pie.

 

[Connoisseurus Rex]

Bottom don't let males pollinate, kill them off. It takes time to grow but for a new grower you should be able to tell if its male or female within 2 weeks of flipping lights to 12/12 possibly sooner. You could also hit 12/12 almost immediately to determine sex, then you once you figure out which one are females you could put them back in vegetative state and grow to desired height then put them into flower(this is time consuming though). You should definitely get into cloning and that mother plant thing. Its real easy, I clone directly into soil and get great results. You just take clones from your plants. Put the plants in flower. Keeps plants and clones number labeled so you can track what clone came from what plant. So say you have 5 plants number plants 1-5. Veg 1-5 out. Once at a decent height take 2 clones from each plant. So you have 10 clones. 2 from each plant. So 2#1s,2#2s,2#3s,ect. So the original plants 1-5 have been put into flower. Only # 3 and #4 are female the rest are males. So you know to kill off plants 1,2,and 5 along with their clones. You keep#3 and# 4 clones and have 2 clones from #3 and #4 so you could put 1 of each of the clones(#3+#4) into flower and keep the other two clones from #3 +#4 as mother plants for future cuts. That way you will know #3+#4 are females and you wont have to worry about determining sex of plants and wasting time. Easy as pie.

Wow. That helped me for my future planning a lot. That's such a good idea as I want to try my hand at breeding and through that process I can kill the flowering male and keep the best male clone for future breeding. Not my thread but a huge thanks none the less.

 

[bertaluchi]

Unless your a breeder or plan on becoming a breeder kill the males as soon as you see them. Trying to create your own seeds from unknown genetics is a recipe for disaster. You will most likely mess up the otherwise decent smoke with seeds that will likely produce herb that is sub-standard. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Dividedsky]

Unless your a breeder or plan on becoming a breeder kill the males as soon as you see them. Trying to create your own seeds from unknown genetics is a recipe for disaster. You will most likely mess up the otherwise decent smoke with seeds that will likely produce herb that is sub-standard. Just my 2 cents.

For sure new growers should definitely not be trying their hand at breeding. Take clones from plants> throw plants in flower(find out which are females)>keep clones from females>toss male plants out. Whala!

 

[Connoisseurus Rex]

Well I am as eager to learn how the plan functions as I am to smoke what comes off of it. I'm going to tinker around with it anyway. It fascinates me.

 

[Dividedsky]

Well I am as eager to learn how the plan functions as I am to smoke what comes off of it. I'm going to tinker around with it anyway. It fascinates me.

Definitely but 1st and foremost is getting decent genetics and female plants to clone that are stable. That's way you have good bud for years to come

 

[Connoisseurus Rex]

Agreed. I'm going to do my first cloning in 2 weeks or so.