Are you growing your own cannabis? If you are – then you will know there is nothing more rewarding than growing your own seeds too. We’ve put together some handy tips as to how you can make seeds on isolated branches without risking pollinating your entire crop. There are some methods that have been tried and tested that we can share with you below so you can become your very own cannabis breeder if you want to.
Controlled Cannabis Pollination
When growing your own cannabis seeds, it’s always best to use fresh pollen if this is possible. When you are collecting and storing pollen – it does work, but it is more complicated to deal with, so more issues can arise. If you can pull fresh pollen from male flowers of a cannabis plant that is healthy and live – that will give you the best results when growing cannabis seeds to make edibles.
Your male plants can be kept in the woods a fair distance away from where your garden is, so you don’t have to worry about pollinating your crop. There is also the option to build a hoop house so your males are controlled once they start to release pollen if you are still concerned about this happening. You will however have to remember that it would need to be an area that is mostly shaded. If the area of your hoop house has too much sun when it’s closed – the environment will be too hot for your males to stay healthy.
Stalling the Release of Pollen
When the males start to bloom you can keep cutting back their flowers during the season until you are ready to collect the pollen for use on your females. As your male is root-bound in a pot it won’t be long before it starts to flower. They will need extra space in order to do this and be placed in a pot (around 7-12 gallon pots) to stop them from flowering too early. Cut them back as and when this is needed.
Due to the fact that they will flower early, you will get to have a proper look at the branch structure, their flower, smells and how they are producing pollen before your females are even ready for pollen. A few of the males can be kept on one strain, which you can learn from before you choose which ones to keep for making seeds.
If the males can’t be kept in the woods – they could also be kept indoors to grow. Make sure that they are kept away from a cupboard, corner of your bathroom, or anything similar. Some house plants could even be made for them. If possible, a window view would be good to give them sufficient light – but if that’s not possible even if there is a light left on in the bathroom – they will still be kept alive if there are no other options available.
How the Female Plant Can be Pollinated
As soon as the stretch of early flowering is complete i.e once they have pistols in large clusters and buds that are of a fair size, females are all set to be pollinated. At this point – you can cut a 4-6 inch piece off your male flower into a paper brown bag or something similar. Make sure you check that the wind is low in your garden before you decide to pollinate. Otherwise you could run the risk of pollen been blown off into another plant and creating other seeds that aren’t wanted causing additional complications.
Take off all of the fan leaves from a lower branch on the female you will be pollinating so that it’s mostly flowers that are exposed. By doing this you are less likely to waste pollen by not having it on your buds but your leaves instead. Put the paper bag you previously prepared with the pollen over the branch. Then you can close the bag over the stem, make sure you have hold it tight and shake. Then you can take away the bag straight away but leaving it for a few hours some more shakes may leave you with better results if you can.
Neutralise Stray Pollen
If you are concerned that you have extra pollen lying around – then make sure that the branches around it are sprayed with water to neutralise any that may be floating about. Spray them again 2 days later if it’s still a growing concern for you. At that point the pollen will have a seed embryo that is fertilised, and the seed creation will be underway. You are nearly there.
Be Careful of Harvest Time
Your branch should be labelled very clearly so that you can tell the difference from that and the rest of your crop. Even use a different colour of tape around it to distinguish it if that makes life easier. You can also add other details on the tape such as the male that was used and when for further clarification. Make sure there is a note on there telling everyone to not cut the branches during harvest. Undoubtedly if it’s a group project this will happen at some point, but this is a good preventative measure.
Ripening the Cannabis Seeds
It usually takes around 4-6 weeks for the seeds to ripen after they have been pollinated, so make sure you keep checking on them at this point. You can complete simple tests such as taking one of them off and pinching it to see if they will break. If it doesn’t break – and has darkened, then the likelihood is that it is done. If you see seeds with stripes that’s usually a pretty good sign that they are ripe – however not every strain will have stripes so be aware of this when checking them.
You also need to be careful to remember that seeds can come in all different shapes and sizes (there is no one size fits all). Be careful not to think that because the strains are small that they are unripe. You can do seed planting in the summer purely for breeding and open pollinate in closed off areas.
Become your Own Cannabis Breeder
Of course there are some discount cannabis seeds that you can purchase thanks to websites such as Discount Cannabis Seeds, but in the meantime – it’s always good to test out doing this on your own. It’s lots of fun and if you can observe the goings on well enough and know a little bit about genetics – there should be no reason why you can’t be your very own cannabis breeder if you want to. You can always just do it for fun and try out some genetics. Hopefully with the tips and advice we have given you, you will be able to grow your own cannabis seeds in no time.
Image attribution: