Collected Pollen is dark

Any idea what this means? I dried the pollen sacs with a silica gel dessicant (in a pollen box) and sifted the pollen through a mesh screen. On the glass it looked golden brown, but when i clumped it together in the tube it looks like a much darker color. I added some silica gel beads into the tube so I'm thinking there is some interaction there.

It shouldn't look like that.

xtsho said:

It shouldn't look like that.

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Dude! I need a cotton swab just lightly sprinkled and sent to me. I've got some pods drying I just don't think i'll get anywhere near that amount.

How did you dry it? Did you spread it and let it sit out? Did you remove the pods? Looks rotten

T macc said:

How did you dry it? Did you spread it and let it sit out? Did you remove the pods? Looks rotten

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I placed harvested sacs in a pollen box with a few silica gel packets. Figured the dessicant would dry it out plenty. Do you think it’s moldy? These were also harvested from a reversed plant, so I was thinking there could be some kief mixed in there by accident.

BreedingEnthusiast said:

I placed harvested sacs in a pollen box with a few silica gel packets. Figured the dessicant would dry it out plenty. Do you think it’s moldy? These were also harvested from a reversed plant, so I was thinking there could be some kief mixed in there by accident.

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Sounds like it might not have been ready to harvest the pollen. Drying out immature pods will not yield viable pollen and the method you used likely contributed to moisture. You should make sure the pods are ready by opening one up if they don't open on their own. Then dry them in open air preferably in low humidity conditions before extracting the pollen. But they should open on their own and all you need to do is catch the pollen.

Typically the pods should release pollen on their own when they're mature. Sometimes with reversed plants they don't always open like they do with a true male but the pollen should be yellow and can can be collected by manually extracting it from the pods. It's tedious but I've done it in the past with reversed plants that wouldn't dump the pollen without some help.

Here's a plant I reversed last spring. I wait until the pods start to open up on their own before collecting the pollen.



Collecting is as simple as putting the parts with the pods over a plate, bowl, aluminum foil, black paper, etc... and collecting it as it falls.



Excess pollen can be sealed in airtight containers, vacuum packed, and stored in the freezer for future use.

What's a pollen box? Im drying mine under a glass dish with a paper towel beside it.

Johiem said:

What's a pollen box? Im drying mine under a glass dish with a paper towel beside it.

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Typically just a kief box. Put you pot in and collect what falls off.

I love keif, I know what that is, so he put them in a grinder? Why do people over complicated this? I'll probably try to sieve mine tonight and I can already tell my pollen won't be that dark. Think I should work them over with my 220 micron work bag?