Male plant and pollen questions.......

[Pot Belly]

I have got a male Afghani plant that is about 22 days old about to bust open with male flowers. I want to make some seeds with the pollen to maintain or create new strains. I know Afghani is a good base for many other strains, and I don't want to lose the traits of this particular strain.

I know I have to keep it away from the other ladies in flower at this point and have a controlled union of pollen on a certain bud, etc......

Are there any basic rules as far as first pollen spores not being as viable or potent? What about keeping the male in a dark area for like 3 days while the staminate flowers are opening?

Any advice from the experienced while I pour over all the reading material on it I can find?

Thanks, PB:)

[HGB]

I just tossed a male for that at 22 days.... bad trait right there from the get go IMHO.... but if was to use it to save a strain I would be use'n pollen from the end of it's cycle.

I have found that when they really start drop'n the pollen light cycle and/or no light at all made no difference in what the plant did really

I move my male's 200 feet away from my grow into a dark barn to finish:hubba:

[Pot Belly]

Thanks for the info HGB.

Early flowering males - not as good as later flowering.....
Early pollen - not as good as mature spores......

Will keep the male away. I have it stuffed somewhere with low light just to maintain. I have some other seeds germing. If another is a male, I will have another to chose from if it is later to flower.

PB:)

[screwdriver]

I kept my male under the hps for as long as I could with females. When I thought I was pushing my luck I moved him into a different area with the only light I had, a cfl. I found on my (one) male that the first hours of light is when I saw the most opening up in the shortest amount of time, but they would open all day. It seemed as soon as that light turned on the plant woke up.