Cheers
@Gquebed glad the posts are of some use
Allowing for strain variations you have to start watching them around 10-14 days, some pollen pods will break open earlier than others. For full on ready to harvest the pollen and open pollinate the females you're around the 3 week mark +-3 days or so. You want ~4 weeks after they're pollinated to finish the plants and mature the seeds, usually not a problem unless you have strains that finish in <7 weeks which is unusual.
Open pollinating them the whole plant will be seeds, a lot of them. Like those little 1gal clones I just posted were up-potted from party cups and flipped. They'll produce ~200-300 seeds each. It's easier to open pollinate, not much planning, just flip them together and they'll do their thing for the most part. I do a bit of both depending on space but I have a dedicated tent for open pollination. Open pollination also makes a mess so some work cleaning between rounds.
Doing a couple of lower branches you'll end up with 60-80 seeds on average or more, got 120+ from one recently. More than enough to hunt through and see what's in there. A bit more work collecting the pollen, being careful not to let too much fly around. But you'll end up with seeds and some seedless smoke. Choices, choices...
