Pollinating with multiple pollen sources

I’m doing a side project in a 3x3 tent to make seeds. The lowdown: I’m using a single 315w bulb in a 630 cmh fixture with 11 plants in small containers. I’m not worried about the amount of light or bud produced. This is a seed run. I’m running 3 different strains all at once. All three strains I reversed in February and collected a boat load of fem pollen from. I’m looking to just pollinate the majority of each plant and not individual branches. I have something like 50 vials of each pollen type so as long as it’s viable I should have lots
So, 3 strains in the tent and a supply of fem pollen from all 3. Now, in a perfect world I would somehow figure out a way to use all 3 pollens on all 3 strains and end up with every combination of seeds in one run. However, while this may be doable it just seems insane to me and I’m reserved to doing 3 runs separately and using a different pollen each time so that I’m not stressed out after the fact with never being sure things didn’t cross pollinate.
Id love to save the time of three runs and do it all at once but without staggering the pollination or using a bunch of tents it just seems reckless to use multiple pollens in one tent.
Am I correct in thinking one pollen per run is best? I considered pollinating 1/3 the plants with one pollen, then spraying them with water and waiting a few days then pollinating another 1/3 with a different pollen and so on but is it worth the time saved vs aggravation?

They call that a gang bang.

Small Paint brushes and some sort of labelling system to differentiate pollinated branches. Not that much work for plants that small. Alot less work/time/money than doing 3 consecutive seed runs.

waterproof808 said:

Small Paint brushes and some sort of labelling system to differentiate pollinated branches. Not that much work for plants that small. Alot less work/time/money than doing 3 consecutive seed runs.

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But wouldn’t the fan blast pollen from plant to plant? I’m not seeing how you could ever be confident after painting multiple pollens on plants in the same tent that it wouldn’t just be a mess of seeds and a crapshoot as to labelling them. Seems akin to open pollinating a tent but with three pollen strains and thinking you know which seeds are which in the end. But what do I know?

after polinating them, give them a day outside nd then spray them down with water, that should wash away any loose pollen and then you wont get cross polination happening

I would just pull em out and do each pollination in the shower, picking a branch and giving each branch a diff color twist tie to clarify the papa. Pollinations could occur on say three days, one day each for each pollen donor. Just use a little water color kid’s paint brush to tap the pollen over and around the branch on each plant that you have selected for that day’s pollination. Have the rest of each plant protected by a bag/poly layer. This is done in the shower away from fans. After an hour or so you can spray down the plants and poly covers thoroughly with water, and the loose pollen should be neutralized. Then everyone goes back into the tent. It doesn’t take long for pollen to do its magic (apparently even a few minutes is sufficient), and water solves the loose pollen issue.

Looking at the pics of your plants, maybe just do one pollen donor per plant as they are not branchy mamas and it will simplify things, with labeling just reminding which plant got which male pollen

Chapl said:

I would just pull em out and do each pollination in the shower, picking a branch and giving each branch a diff color twist tie to clarify the papa. Pollinations could occur on say three days, one day each for each pollen donor. Just use a little water color kid’s paint brush to tap the pollen over and around the branch on each plant that you have selected for that day’s pollination. Have the rest of each plant protected by a bag/poly layer. This is done in the shower away from fans. After an hour or so you can spray down the plants and poly covers thoroughly with water, and the loose pollen should be neutralized. Then everyone goes back into the tent. It doesn’t take long for pollen to do its magic (apparently even a few minutes is sufficient), and water solves the loose pollen issue.

Looking at the pics of your plants, maybe just do one pollen donor per plant as they are not branchy mamas and it will simplify things, with labeling just reminding which plant got which male pollen

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I may just do this. I’d certainly only do one pollen type per plant. I have just enough plants of each strain to hit each one with its own pollen to get max different strains. I’m considering what You’ve described…. Certainly saves time and money if done super carefully

Just put all the plants in one of those game show money machines with all vials of pollen open.

Done and done.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Thinking I may pull out one plant of each strain and pollinate all 3 with one pollen and then leave them out for a few hours, wash them down and return them to the tent. Next day or two do it again with another pollen and finally, do it again for the third and last time. Should get the max combo of seeds in one run. Anyone pollinate and then hit the plants with pollen again a few days later just to insure pollination? Or is once enough? I guess the brown hairs should tell me it worked

I pollinate multiple plants with different pollen. Just pull the target plant, pollinate it, and stick it in a closet or another room for a day. Then mist with water, let dry, and put back in the tent. If you want to pollinate multiple branches with different pollen then use a trash bag to cover the plant except for the part to be pollinated and seal it up to prevent pollen from getting where you don't want it. The plant will be fine for a day.

I usually use small plants when I'm doing seed runs and just pollinate the entire plant. Sometimes I'll have a plant growing for smoke and some pollen ready and that's when I'll cover the top with a trash bag and seal it tight around the stem but leaving some lower branches exposed to be pollinated.

Tightly_Wound said:

But wouldn’t the fan blast pollen from plant to plant? I’m not seeing how you could ever be confident after painting multiple pollens on plants in the same tent that it wouldn’t just be a mess of seeds and a crapshoot as to labelling them. Seems akin to open pollinating a tent but with three pollen strains and thinking you know which seeds are which in the end. But what do I know?

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i have multiple success runs doing this, while I’ve never used more then 1 plants pollen, I’ve never had issue with pollinatingmore branches then I wanted and never removed my plants from the tent.

first, of course, you must turn off all fans. I’ve always Used a q-tip but paintbrush is whatyou always read about.

Your concerns are valid regarding pollen spreading but if you do it right it’s not an issue. You’ll literally see the plant react as you hit it with pollen and it only takes a tiny touch to pollinate the bud. Come up with some sort of tagging system for each pollinated branch and you should be good.

If you can leave the fan off for light cycle Inwould do so but if not you should be good still.

Russian Roulette with seeds. You're gonna have different mixes on each plant. Not knowing what the cross is. I'll use tiresias mist on one and let nature take its course. Pollen is lighter than air I just use fans and get around 500 seeds with 150 to 200 viable seeds per plant, that's without using a arts and craft brush just letting fans blow pollen around

Thanks for all the suggestions. In the event I choose to play it safe and do 3 runs each with a single pollen, is there a better way to distribute pollen in a vial(s) to cover everything in the tent other than with a brush? I’m thinking of dumping a few vials onto a folded piece of paper and just holding it in front of a fan on max. Would this do it?

Tightly_Wound said:

Thanks for all the suggestions. In the event I choose to play it safe and do 3 runs each with a single pollen, is there a better way to distribute pollen in a vial(s) to cover everything in the tent other than with a brush? I’m thinking of dumping a few vials onto a folded piece of paper and just holding it in front of a fan on max. Would this do it?

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Yes but it's not definite everything will be pollinated accordingly as if pollinating manually. Imo unless you're selling seeds extra work isn't needed to get enough quantity for personal grows. Just have to wait until ripe seeds are falling off plant to try and insure you get the most viable seeds you can

I’m just entering week three of flower. If I pollinate in the next few days, should I go the full 8 weeks? Again, any bud will be made into hash or edibles most likely. Just calling this a seed run

Tightly_Wound said:

I’m just entering week three of flower. If I pollinate in the next few days, should I go the full 8 weeks? Again, any bud will be made into hash or edibles most likely. Just calling this a seed run

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When I run for seeds they run so long I forget how long they've been running longer than 8 weeks for sure. Longer than a average harvest you're making seeds not weed. Just have to wait until ripe seeds fall
I tear through the plant like a mad man then give it to my worms..... not that I haven't smoked it. Lol not right then but if you're a weed head you cant help but try 6 month old garbage bag weed. Haha actually wasnt that bad lol for garbage bag weed

Are these are plants you’ve run before, if so take them to their normal flower cycle, I never run seeded plants less than 65 days from flip, you want to maximize mature seeds. Attached is a photo of a q-tip pollenated bud, notice you only see a few seeds in there. I think I pulled a total of 30-40 on that run by selectively pollinating. Left me with plenty of smoke.

GroBud said:

When I run for seeds they run so long I forget how long they've been running longer than 8 weeks for sure. Longer than a average harvest you're making seeds not weed. Just have to wait until ripe seeds fall
I tear through the plant like a mad man then give it to my worms..... not that I haven't smoked it. Lol not right then but if you're a weed head you cant help but try 6 month old garbage bag weed. Haha actually wasnt that bad lol for garbage bag weed

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Wait til seeds are falling off the plant? Seriously I have never seen that happen, I’m not sure I’ve ever had any fall out doing hanging and I’ve made many runs. Do you have any photos of your seeded buds in that date that you could share, I would love to see what they look like when they’re ripe enough to drop seeds.

Grojak said:

Are these are plants you’ve run before, if so take them to their normal flower cycle, I never run seeded plants less than 65 days from flip, you want to maximize mature seeds. Attached is a photo of a q-tip pollenated bud, notice you only see a few seeds in there. I think I pulled a total of 30-40 on that run by selectively pollinating. Left me with plenty of smoke.



Wait til seeds are falling off the plant? Seriously I have never seen that happen, I’m not sure I’ve ever had any fall out doing hanging and I’ve made many runs. Do you have any photos of your seeded buds in that date that you could share, I would love to see what they look like when they’re ripe enough to drop seeds.

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Yea I just run for seeds when I do I dont consider the plant. Lol just want seeds from it. Rather have 150 to 200 seeds for 10 or more years never having to run that plant again for seeds unless you grow tf out of it lol

I dont have a pic, looks like a regular pot plant no pistils with seed pods everywhere lol I got the seeds tho you buy that many seeds for personal you're crazy or love the strain what do you think seeds do when you just leave them on the plant? Turn to dust, I learned to do that just by a simple Google search of how to make seeds. Sounds like you should do a little research of how to properly harvest seeds bud. Coming at me with that bullshit like I'm full of shit lol

Or those tiresias mist for no reason. I'm just a dumbass who buys shit they dont need and says shit they dont mean. You can harvest at 4 to 6 weeks after pollination however you're not going to get the most out of your seed run imagine how many none ripe or nonviable seeds you have letting it ripe more will give you more viable seeds still have a shit ton of non viable but more than 40 to 60 good seeds to me that sounds like a waste of time maybe not to you. I take that back you dont leave your plant going long enough since you need the bud from it too, to know how many nonviable to viable you'll actually get. When that's your throw away pile that I got in zip locks down there. that little shit dont matter. I run autos outdoors 8-12 plants 365 all year around from 36° F to 120°F 7% humidity to 3 tents and a closet when needed indoors for photos ( which also are ran perpetually, most times ), seed starting, vegging, flowering, drying, crossing and seed harvesting. I'm on here grasscity and grow weed easy for educational purposes to help other growers succeed not to do petty opinions back and forth. For instance I DON'T do anything to my outdoor plants but let them grow. This grow I topped and trained in various ways. Just to show what they look like doing certain things. Imo I fucked that grow up just by doing that but I dont care I'm still going to pull more than I can smoke in one year with this one run. Later bubba

GroBud said:

Yea I just run for seeds when I do I dont consider the plant. Lol just want seeds from it. Rather have 150 to 200 seeds for 10 or more years never having to run that plant again for seeds unless you grow tf out of it lol

I dont have a pic, looks like a regular pot plant no pistils with seed pods everywhere lol I got the seeds tho you buy that many seeds for personal you're crazy or love the strain what do you think seeds do when you just leave them on the plant? Turn to dust, I learned to do that just by a simple Google search of how to make seeds. Sounds like you should do a little research of how to properly harvest seeds bud. Coming at me with that bullshit like I'm full of shit lol

Or those tiresias mist for no reason. I'm just a dumbass who buys shit they dont need and says shit they dont mean. You can harvest at 4 to 6 weeks after pollination however you're not going to get the most out of your seed run imagine how many none ripe or nonviable seeds you have letting it ripe more will give you more viable seeds still have a shit ton of non viable but more than 40 to 60 good seeds to me that sounds like a waste of time maybe not to you. I take that back you dont leave your plant going long enough since you need the bud from it too, to know how many nonviable to viable you'll actually get. When that's your throw away pile that I got in zip locks down there. that little shit dont matter. I run autos outdoors 8-12 plants 365 all year around from 36° F to 120°F 7% humidity to 3 tents and a closet when needed indoors for photos ( which also are ran perpetually ), seed starting, crossing and seed harvesting. I'm on here grasscity and grow weed easy for educational purposes to help other growers succeed not to do petty opinions back and forth. For instance I DON'T do anything to my outdoor plants but let them grow. This grow I topped and trained in various ways. Just to show what they look like doing certain things. Imo I fucked that grow up just by doing that but I dont care I'm still going to pull more than I can smoke in one year with this one run. Later bubba

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Hey do you, you’re hostility is telling though.

You’re welcome to grow your plants any way you want, no one can tell you otherwise. No need to get upset though, we’re all here to learn. To say that ta healthy plant is dropping seeds left and right just isn’t correct information.

Now if you’re just leaving unwatered plants in a grow room and letting them dry out for a month, perhaps I could understand the dropping of seeds, but not in a healthy plant.

Only pics I could find on grasscity with a relative search no idea what age that is or when I took those pics. Frustrates the hell out of me when people with different grow methods or differing opinions dont just give their opinion but try and make the opposing opinion seem uneducated. Especially without knowing why I grow the way I do. I have zero problem with throwing plants away. I recently got pissed at a over sized plant laying on my other 3, in my tent and ripped it out of the trellis. Vacuumed up a ounce or two it was close enough to make edibles if it wasnt I'd had no issue trashing it. It was hindering the other 3 and had to go. 13 weeks into flower lol I dont give 2 shits.

I dont mess with photos like that or haven't yet I deal with autos since that's what the majority of my runs consists of. Outdoor autos indoor photos. I wouldnt recommended anyone getting seeds like that outdoors I didn't have a choice at the time and wanted that run so I pulled a dick move hopefully since it was still illegal then nobody got pollinated.