polyploids had a background in most them strains, a parent was a polyploid and was used to cross with a regular plant and that produced a stable but high thc plant, so polyploids are a way of producing some potent strains and strains that produce huge monster sized buds, they can be a lot of work but so can plants in general,
with the males when i collect pollen i have the plant in a seperate room, make sure their is no air moving around so no windows open or fans blowing,
then i check on the male very day and when i see a flower has popped open i get a small plastic tub and hold it under the flower thats opened, then i give the stem a gentle tap and the pollen will then fall into the tub or piece of paper or what ever your catching the pollen in,
the flowers will continue to open over the next few weeks so you have plenty of time to collect the pollen, at first you will only have 1 or 2 male flowers open and you can collect pollen from these, but give it 7 to 10 days and lots of flowers will be open and you will have lots of pollen to collect,
just remember if your not storing the pollen in freezer or fridge then you need to use it as soon as possible, at room temp its only viable for a few days as humidity breaks the pollen down and kills it, ive not stored pollen long term as ive not needed to so i collect it over a week then after that week ill gently brush it on the pistils on the female plant i want seeds from.
i also dont turn a whole plant to seed, i just use some lower branches and pollinate the pistils on these branches and that gives me 40 to 50 seeds for future grows, i pollinated my sensi star about 2 weeks ago with some male gdp pollen and the seed pods have popped open already and the seeds are turning brown so much quicker than any other cross ive made, but this gdp x sensi star is a strain im trying to make stable so ill grow out the seeds and select pheno types and all that crap until im happy with the end results,
so give us a shout when your need some info and ill do my best to answer, but as long as your male flowers open the pollen is ready to fall out, some will fall out when the flower opens but most of it will remain inside the male flower until you tap the plant, if the male flower is inside the plant and you cant get a tub under it then use a piece of shiny paper and catch it that way, you dont get much pollen from just 1 male flower so you may end up losing it all as it sticks to the paper, i just use a tub and tap the flowers into that so the pollen collects in the bottom, then its ready to use and i just use a que tip/cotton bud and dip it in the pollen then brush it onto the pistils i want seeds from.
if you need to store the pollen long term or at least until you female is in flower then you need to collect as much pollen as you can then store it, you dont want to collect a bit each day and store it then get it out of storage to collect more, so if you need to store it then id wait until the male is in full flower and you will then have lots of pollen to collect, if you just want a handfull of seeds say 50 seeds then a few males flowers worth of pollen will be all you need. i got pollen out of 4 male flowers and used this on my sensi star and i recon ive easily got 20 seeds coming from each bud site, it all depends on bud sites and how much pistils that part of the plant has got,
Glad to hear it's still a go-go. 
