Producing Feminized Seeds Using Colloidal Silver

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So what to do with the probable male plant I have?

 

[Mr. Krip]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So what to do with the probable male plant I have?

Well, it depends on what you want to do. You certainly can use it for breeding, but you won't be guaranteed feminized seeds, so some of the seeds produced from it will be male.

If you're not looking to breed it, I'd just toss it in the trash/compost.

Either way, you should separate it from any females ASAP so you can control (or prevent) any pollenation.

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Well, it depends on what you want to do. You certainly can use it for breeding, but you won't be guaranteed feminized seeds, so some of the seeds produced from it will be male.

If you're not looking to breed it, I'd just toss it in the trash/compost.

Either way, you should separate it from any females ASAP so you can control (or prevent) any pollenation.

Ya I have it in my veg room with seedlings. I may keep it and put it in the flower room when the current flowering/harvest is complete in like 3 weeks. I would not mind having some White Widow seeds....

 

[NotaDrinker]

So, I have began my first journal with 420Magazine (which I won't currently link as there is currently nothing but a single post detailing my intentions).
I have decided to hold off on germinating my feminized seeds and instead will try to reproduce my results on the first strain I ever grew.
It is a local strain known and bred here in Ottawa as Blue Domino.
Genetics are from Blue Indica and Black Domino, and also some Northern Lights.
This grow, I will again be using home made Colloidal silver made with .9999 silver wire and distilled water to a ppm of about 25.
Hopefully I can use this grow to know for sure that my methods work and were not a fluke. I will however be sharing a few of my feminized FI seeds and will know how they turned out, so either way I will know whether they turned out viable and feminized this summer.
I think it is important to know for sure whether my methods are sound, so I will hold off for now on growing out my seeds and instead concentrate on replicating this experiment again.

I just wanted one more time to say thank you to Granny and everyone else who chimed in in this thread, and wanted to wish you all the best of luck.

 

[NorCaliwood]

Hey Granny. Just thought I'd do a check check up and see how your little science experiment is going. I see I don't have to much long to wait. I got my fingers crossed for your testers. Keepem Green.

 

[Granny420]

LUVIES TO EVERYONE!!!

I am just here to get a quick message in so no one worries about me!!! It feels like all hell has broke loose here! Two deaths (long term acquaintances) which were both unexpected, business picking up faster than usual which means hiring/training more staff, keeping up with product inventory... it just goes on and on and on... but I am here for a brief time so I'm gonna quit goin' on about that!!!

First, a huge to EVERYONE for keepin' the home fires burnin' in here!!! I AM SO GRATEFUL!!!

Congrats Doc!!! But don't toss out any CS treated plants until you SEE SEEDS! The pistils are a good indication, but the most positive way to know is to SEE SEEDS!

FEMALE AUTO MAZAR SEEDS UPDATE..

This one is really strange. I turned the bottom of one auto Mazar and used the pollen on itself and as a cross on two strains, one was Thunder Bloody Mary (Mazar x auto White Dwarf) and the other was a couple branches on the purple plant I have.

I pollinated the TBM and M twice, both on the same dates... then I also pollinated the Mazar an additional two times 10 days later. I had watched pistils and felt both were pollinated, so I removed the CS treated parts so I could put the M back in my flower room to finish making seeds.

I pollinated the purple auto Blue Himalaya (2 branches) plant the second time I used the pollen on the TBM and M and again both the last times I pollinated the M (Jan 4th and 8th).

What did I get???
TBM x M = 5 seeds (found one more after drying)
Purple BH x M = 3 seeds
M x M = ZERO!!! I found a number of ... I call them "half-seeds" cuz they are only partially started on one side and then don't finish so they end about halfway with the other end dead brown stuff.

Egads! I'm not sure what happened with that one??? The same pollen from the same plant. The Mazar was the farthest into bloom tho, so maybe that had something to do with it???

But I'll take the 8 seeds I did get and say GOOD!!!

I have definitely had better success with pollination now. It has been MOST HELPFUL to know to watch for seeds too!!! I can't express the gratefullness I feel for NotaDrinker posting those seed images! In the beginning I was evidently STILL taking the pollen too early and the results were less seeds. I am definitely doing better now that I know to not just watch for pistil changes (which can be deceiving), but instead to look for seeds and continue pollinating until I see them!!!

REGULAR PURPLE BH SEEDS: Purple auto Blue Himalaya x auto BH (ad's pollen)
I pollinated 4 of the mid-upper branches and got almost 200 seeds!!! These will be regular (not feminized), but is sure a good start on getting purple autos!

I am preparing for furthering the purples... I germinated 35 of the purples sibling seeds around a month ago, all 35 popped in the wet towels and then sprouted in soil. I culled 2 that weren't growing as good and got 15 males and 18 females (show at just over 3 weeks from seed). I started spraying the bottom of EVERY female as soon as I could tell what they were for sex, starting last week. I don't know which will be purples, but know I will get pollen from those that do!!!

Okay... I have had multiple interruptions from calls by staff since sitting down here... and I still have to get in to the Member of the Month contest to cast my vote!

So sorry to be in here less. L I F E... I wish it was...
RETIREMENT!!!!!!

 

[DennyinCA]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your acquaintances, Granny.

Thanks to OG13 for the words of encouragement. My last post was almost a week ago, and what a difference! I was beginning to think that all I'd get was experience from this, but in hindsight, my biggest problem was lack of patience. I thought that the female branches of my half and half plant was too old to get pollinated since most of the pistils had turned color. I was definitely picking pollen sacs too early. Like NotaDrinker said. When they're ready, they just about fall off. For about 5 days in a row total, I let pollen drop on everything that had a white pistil. While looking for ready pollen sacs, I started seeing more and more that had opened on the own. I saved excess pollen in 5 old film containers. Emptied about 10 sacs in each. As of today, it looks like everything I dropped it on has started to seed. Now, it's all a matter of waiting to see how they mature. Does anyone see any harm in letting them go too long?

Here's a few pics from this morning. These first 2 are from the all female. She's the one I tried to slow down by pruning. I pollinated her before any pistils had changed color on their own, and she now has seeds starting everywhere.

The pic below is from a lower node of one of the female branches of the half male/half female. By far it looks to have progressed the best. I'm seeing scattered seeds starting all over the female half, but mostly just 1 or two per bud. I'm guessing the tops were mostly too late to accept pollen, and some of the lower nodes were not that matured yet, and still ready to go. Needless to say, I'm now a happy camper, and have very high hopes. For reference, the strain is Strawberry Haze. The pic below was taken today, (day 48 of flowering). She was pollinated somewhere around day 40.

And finally the one below from three days ago of one of the male flowers that was created by spraying with colloidal silver. (before I trashed the male branches)

I'll keep you posted on how these babies develope.

 

[Dr.Blue]

Beautiful pictures.

 

[NotaDrinker]

Great Job Man! Beautiful pics indeed! Congrats!

I wasn't joking when I said they almost fall right off when ready eh?

I don't think there is any harm in leaving the seeds to finish as long as needed. The only thing that will happen, id that the THC will begin to break down the longer you leave them. But this is for the seeds, so the buzz you get from smoking the excess plant matter is moot. (I know I smoked mine and it was just fine).
So, give them at least 4 weeks. If you can manage, give them 6. Then you will have the maximum amount of totally mature seeds. I counted well over 100 FI seeds from the small plant I made them with, more than I expected for sure.

Again, Great Job!

Edit: Heed OG13's Warning Below!!!!!

 

[OG13]

If you leave them a long time, be careful moving the plants and at harvest time. The seeds will be loose in the bracts and will easily fall off and drop to the floor/dirt to be lost, and get mixed up with other seeds. You will know when to harvest the seeds.....

 

[DennyinCA]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will follow it, and just let them go and watch very closely. I have no doubt that I would not be at this point if not for all the prior photos and advice from Granny and everyone on this thread.

I am now totally with NotaDrinker on the importance of patience, and just waiting for your strain to do it's thing. After reading the time line on other strains, I had myself convinced that something had gone wrong. Every day I would pick sacs that I thought looked ready, but nothing. Then towards the end, I'd see pollen drop as I was moving my tweezers into position over the bud. In the end I probably had at least a thousand times more pollen than I needed.

 

[NotaDrinker]

Yeah, a little goes a looooong way.
And when you see it drop onto the buds, you have a
much better idea of how easily it can drift anywhere.
It almost floats in the air.
Great job man.
I hope I can do as well the second time as I did the first time .

 

[BigIrishDoode]

i have plenty of homemade silver, and am just trying to decide on a purple#1,purple maroc, clones to spray, mostly waiting on them to veg out long enough to be big enough, the "mothers" of the clones are in flower and are soon to get pollen from regular males, and am waiting to have some autos in the near future to experiment on, i want to work with non autos first so im not rushed by the flower time, love this thread since its early dsys, hope my cs tut helped and will help in the future, i'll post more when i have more cs related stuff!

 

[Granny420]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your acquaintances, Granny.

The pic below is from a lower node of one of the female branches of the half male/half female. By far it looks to have progressed the best. I'm seeing scattered seeds starting all over the female half, but mostly just 1 or two per bud. I'm guessing the tops were mostly too late to accept pollen, and some of the lower nodes were not that matured yet, and still ready to go. Needless to say, I'm now a happy camper, and have very high hopes. For reference, the strain is Strawberry Haze. The pic below was taken today, (day 48 of flowering). She was pollinated somewhere around day 40.

I'll keep you posted on how these babies develope.

DennyinCA

Oh My isn't that BEAUTIFUL!!! And to KNOW they are ALL FEMALE SEEDS!!!



Again, I want to thank Mr Krip, NotaDrinker, OG13, Doc, Irish, and anyone I forgot who has been so helpful to everyone here in answering questions and keeping things progressing in this journal. I might have started the journal, but it is ALL OF OUR JOURNAL!!!

And so much, Denny, for your kind thoughts about our losses. As we age, I guess we have to learn to deal with losing more friends and acquaintances. Doesn't make it easier tho.

Today, I again have very little time. Will probably be the story of my life until July when my business slows down. Today, I have a ton of bookwork to do and I have two plants to harvest and a few to transplant - it never ends, but is WELL WORTH THE LABOR!!!!

I will be making time in the next week or two to take some more pics, but here is a bit of an update on what is going on with Granny's world...

Of the plants I started with this experiment...
1) Auto Blueberry... It is hilarious what I did with this one now!!! This lil hummer is a VERY SHORT strain. I turned one plant with CS and grew a second seed to be able to pollinate. In the end, the one I turned was NOT ready when the other was and I was not able to pollinate a straight Auto Blueberry strain. So... LOL... last week I decided I just want to see what happens with seeds from a cross with regular (not auto) Kush strains. So, I took the last pollen from this little plant on 2/13/12 and used some of it to pollinate a couple buds on each of 3 LARGE Kush plants (Master Kush, Afghan Kush Special, and Pre-98 Bubba). LOL - a 10-inch plant crossed with 3 plants that grew to around 3 feet tall! So funny... still don't know why I did it!!!

2) Auto Cream Caramel... This one also was sprayed with CS entirely and it's mate finished long before the pollen was ready. This one I crossed with all the lower branches on the Purple Auto Blue Himalaya plant I have and I see numerous seeds on these branches, but the last pollination was last week and this plant is putting out hermie nanas due to being WAY past it's harvest date, so I will give it another month before taking those seeds.
SIDE NOTE: The purple plant used with this cross has already given me a nice top to smoke (so DELICIOUS!!!), around 200 regular seeds from being pollinated with it's father pollen, and 3 feminized seeds from a cross with the Auto Mazar, and now still needs to give me the Cream Caramel cross feminized seeds.

3) Auto Mazar... This one I used CS to turn the bottom and used the pollen on the top, and I crossed it with Thunder Bloody Mary (strain is a cross of Mazar and White Dwarf) and I crossed it with the Purple. I got 5 seeds from the TBM cross, 3 seeds from the Purple cross, and ZERO from the self-Mazar pollination - instead I got a number of partially formed half-seeds. I have no idea of why the auto Mazar seeds quit forming in the Mazar plant???? These were not seeds that were taken too early - the were only partially formed.

4) Auto Blue Himalaya Diesel... This one I also treated only the lower half and pollinated the top. I lost two seeds in bumping the plant (OG13 was very right to be careful if you leave the seeds go longer cuz they will fall off the plant easily!) and ended up with... hmmm, I think 10 seeds of which 7 look viable.

FIRST FEM SEED SPROUTED!!! I dried and then froze the seeds from #3 and #4 above and am now working on sprouting a few. I put 2 HBD, 2 TBMxM, and 3 of the earliest Purple regular seeds in a moist towel to see if they would sprout now... less than 24 hours later, I have 2 purple seeds and 1 HBD seed sprouting and have potted them - there will most likely be more seeds sprouting from this. But at least ONE of my FEM seeds IS SPROUTED!!! So I am FINALLY on the way to seeing results from all this work!!!

5) Auto Kush... I felt this plant had strong hermie traits and I culled it.

6) Auto Widow Ryder... This one I began CS spraying all of the plant and after about 8 days I stopped spraying the top of this plant because it didn't have 6-9 nodes of growth which is when it ways it automatically flowers. Stopping the upper spraying allowed the plant to continue growing upward so it finally flowered. What I ended up with was a plant that was totally turned on the bottom, has a lot of nanas in the mid-section, and has a beautiful top with no nanas on the top. The mid-section with lots of nanas AND lots of buds has had the nanas disappear in the growth. At the time the pollen was becoming viable (mid-Jan), I saw the pistils (hairs) from many sections near the nanas turn brown in a hurry, like they suddenly got pollinated. I pollinated the top bud repeatedly with bottom pollen at that time AND since... I sure see no reason why I won't have seeds on this one, even if they are from the hermie mid-section... but have yet to see a seed... and with my history of NO seeds on plants I can't see them on, well... I am worried!!! The top of this plant does NOT look like the top of the other female I harvested of this strain - it looks seeded, but I cannot SEE seeds. I guess time will tell. Since this plant has been SO SLOW to develop and was the last one pollinated (last pollination was last week with any browned sacs I could find and pick outta the mid-hermie looking section), it will be some time before this one is harvested (and I find out!).I want seeds off this one REAL BAD - it is wonderful smoke and a good yielding plant for an auto strain.

7) Ladyburn 1974... I turned one clone completely and used it to pollinate a sister clone (same genetics). I wasn't seeing seeds on this one either which had me very concerned that even tho I *thought* I had waited long enough for viable pollen - that I had not... I pollinated the last time in mid-Jan and just this weekend finally saw at least 2 seeds forming on this plant!!! I am super relieved to finally start seeing seeds on this one!!! Since this is not an auto strain, I will wait longer for the seeds (at least 8 weeks) from the time I pollinated.

8) Pineapple Chunk... This one I also turned one clone and used it to pollinate a sister clone. I have yet to see a seed on this one also. I thought it took, but that was before I was aware to look for seeds! I am hoping for the best, but only time will tell me! This one is a butt kicking smoke, but it also raises a LOT OF STINK while growing.

AFTER pollinating all of those strains, is when I figured out I was STILL probably taking pollen TOO EARLY. DO NOT DO THIS!!! Yes, this process takes a LOT of patience!

MY MALE/FEMALE POLLEN EXPERIMENT... When I figured out I might still be taking pollen too early, I tried a little experiment so I could compare... I had a male Papaya plant and harvested his pollen to experiment with. I used the male Papaya pollen on Jan 25th (a couple plants) and Jan 30th (on other plants). All seeds created from using this pollen will be regular (NOT FEM) seeds.
1) I pollinated one branch on each of the 3 Papaya girls I had in flower. I see seeds forming on every one of these girls.
2) I crossed the male Papaya pollen with Mataro Blue AND I used Mataro Blue pollen from a MB plant I treated with CS to pollinate a different branch. BOTH showed me seeds at the same time, but I have since used more MB pollen to re-pollinate the MB branch just to try to get more seeds in the end.
3) I crossed the male Papaya pollen with Red Dragon AND I used RD pollen from a RD plant I treated with CS to pollinate a different branch. BOTH showed me seeds at the same time, but I have since used more RD pollen to re-pollinate the RD branch just to try to get more seeds in the end.
4) I crossed the male Papaya pollen with Aurora Indica AND I used Aurora Indica pollen for an AI plant I treated with CS to pollinate a different branch (and I have re-pollinated the AI branch). NEITHER have shown me any seeds yet. Since all other plants I crossed with the Papaya have shown me seeds, I am left to believe this plant IS seeded but either hides the seeds or is later in showing them. I hope so, cuz I really love this strain!!!

So... I guess not all plants SHOW the seeds easily (as with #4 above).

This let me know my procedure for pollination WAS working, so the problems I am having with less seeds has only one reason - TAKING POLLEN TOO EARLY on the CS treated plants. I have been very careful to only take the absolute brownest sacs and if at all possible to only use sacs that will release some pollen immediately upon being taken. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HELPED ME FIGURE THIS OUT!!!! I do say "if possible" tho because I have had some strains that never did release the pollen at any stage - these would be the auto Blueberry and auto Cream Caramel that I just finally took my last pollen from (to freeze) before taking those plants down. Mind you, these are auto plant strains supposed to finish seed to harvest in 8 to 10 weeks and they were started Oct 5th as seeds... they had a very long life!!! But even dead brown - they did not release the pollen when shook, I had to squish the sacs to get them to release it. But I think the best advice has been given by others here - IF THE POLLEN WILL DROP IMMEDIATELY IT IS VIABLE!!!

A QUEST FOR PURPLES... I'M STARTED, IRISH!!!
I am also working towards getting purples. The seeds I used that gave me my first purple were regular (not feminized) seeds I produced by pollinating an auto Blue Himalaya plant with a male auto BH. I had ten seeds of this strain (by Short Stuff) in the beginning. This initial pollination gave me hundreds of seeds to work with now...

I planted a few of my seeds (I got from my pollination) and ended up with 3 females. Two were green and one was purple. I also gave a few to a friend who also got 3 females, one purple and 2 green.

Since two of us have gotten one purple out of three females and my purple was going to be a bit on finishing seeds (and I had the room last month), I popped a number of my seeds in a quest for purple plants. I ended up with 18 females. As soon as they showed pre-flowers for sex, I began CS spray on the bottom two nodes on EVERY female plant. If they were purple, I couldn't tell yet but want to be able to get female pollen if they are... so CS treatment of ALL females was started.

Now... they are just starting to flower and I can already see I have at least 5 purples and there are still some that are not quite as far along that may give me one or two more. YES!!!

I will use the pollen collected from the best of these to pollinate plants I seed/grow from my purple plant - I have around 200 regular (not fem) seeds from that plant that are the same strain and the first two have popped!!! In the least this future cross should produce a higher percentage of purple plants, but I will also try to cross for other specifics like height, bud structure, and trichs.

That is it for updates outta me - probably for the week... oh NO - cuz I will have to stop back in to see if my favorite in the 420 Member of the Month contest wins!!! So I will be back in to *hopefully* congrat him in a few days and I'll make sure I at least catch up again and jot a quick note!!! I don't dare say any more - cuz I promised to keep my dentures in my mouth this month!!! LOL

I SOOOOO LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NotaDrinker]

LOL Great Job Granny!
And yes, keep those dentures in LOL

 

[OG13]

Thanks for the update/synopsis. It is nice to see it all in one spot once again, hard for me to keep track of it w/ all I've got going on here.

 

[Vapedogg223]

+Reps to you Granny!

 

[NorCaliwood]

Drive bye. Hope it's working out with the seed Granny. I can't wait to see you will fem seeds. Them I might give it a try. Hey someone kind of asked if there is harm in going to long into seed. Mother Nature lets them go untill they fall out. So I don't think there is too long. I KNOW there's too short..... Keep em Green

 

[Granny420]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will follow it, and just let them go and watch very closely. I have no doubt that I would not be at this point if not for all the prior photos and advice from Granny and everyone on this thread.

I am now totally with NotaDrinker on the importance of patience, and just waiting for your strain to do it's thing. After reading the time line on other strains, I had myself convinced that something had gone wrong. Every day I would pick sacs that I thought looked ready, but nothing. Then towards the end, I'd see pollen drop as I was moving my tweezers into position over the bud. In the end I probably had at least a thousand times more pollen than I needed.

Denny

I am so very pleased at the others who are taking part in this journal because I am learning SO MUCH from them too!!!! And yes, patience is NOT my strongest trait but it is VITAL here if we want success! I was taking the pollen too soon also and feel bad cuz I posted a bunch of pics of when "I" thought the pollen was ready (confusing anyone following this journal and giving BAD info!!!)... I am also finding it is a longer wait to viable pollen and any taking/pollinating prior to that point is just ......

Sittin' by the dock of the bay...
Wastin' time.

 

[Granny420]

Had to log back in so I could upload the first message I wrote and "thought" I uploaded already! IT'S HELL TO GIT OLD!!!!! But better posted later, than not at all!!

LUVIES TO EVERYONE!!!

Just a quick one today - only here cuz I had to make sure our Siscokid won the Member of the Month (MOTM) for Feb - and HE DID!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He SOOOOOOOOO deserves it for all of his support to everyone!!!!!

FIRST FEMINIZED SEEDS UP!!!!

1) Neither of the auto Thunder Bloody Mary x CS treated auto Mazar pollen seeds have sprouted in 3 days - I'll give them a few more days and then just dry them out again and refreeze to see if they just need a bit more aging time. They have good color, so I feel it's just a matter of them aging a bit.

2) Both of the auto Himalaya Blue Diesel fem seeds (from this experiment) sprouted, popped 2 more and they are sprouted also - so the first 4 female seeds from this experiment are now growing! YES!!! WOO HOO!!!

3) Two out of the 3 regular (not feminized) purple seeds popped and are sprouted for me, the last seed has done nothing yet but I'll give it a few more days in the moist cloth and see what happens. These seeds were from the first 8 I took about 10 days before harvesting the other (almost 200) seeds... so if these are viable surely the remainder are also.

Got a letter from the IRS - UGH!!!!!!!!!! Am being audited next week.... a friend gave me two Xanax today (I don't usually take anything like this) to help me calm down... much better at this moment than a couple hours ago!!! Egads... just those letters put a fear in you even if all your books have no problems!!! But I do have a number of things to get together for them - as if I didn't already have enough to do - UGH!!!! Now I need to find someone to replace me at work so I can get all that crap together.

Thinking about selling the business I run... possibly later this year. Have been visiting with a strong potential buyer (he tried to buy the place when we did years ago)... IF it happens, it won't be until after our busy season - looking at mid summer possibly. ALL iffy, but I can tell you I am so stressed with trying to keep up with everything that I am TICKLED at the prospect of MAYBE selling the business and having my life somewhat DE-stressed. Nothing set yet tho, so I won't get too excited just yet... wouldn't be an actual retirement, but sure would ease MY life!!!!!

Gees - then maybe I could actually have time to visit others in here again - I WOULD BE DELIGHTED WITH THAT!!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! Keep our home fires burning!!!!!