Applying pollen by hand Q?

[SunWolf]

I collected a bit of pollen from my male Papaya and KaliChakra plants and stored it in a cool dark place in a pill bottle. I'm wanting to choose one branch per male on each of my female plants to get a few seeds each of some crosses for future playing around with. :hubba:

My plan is to tag the chosen branch with the males name and use a paint brush to carefully dab on some pollen to the hairs on the flowers only on that branch.

Question is: At what point in flower development to apply the pollen to get the best results?

Should it be applied early-on to all flowers on the branch? Or wait awhile to see how the flowers develop at different points along the branch and choose the most well developed flowers to be the seed maker?

:confused2: Or does it even seem to matter at all?

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hick]

.. seeds require a "minimum" of 4 weeks to fully develop and mature, but "IMO" 6 is better. Now, 'one healthy, viable, pistill + 'one grain of viable pollen' = 'one seed'.
"I" usually pollinate within the first 2 weeks of profuse flowering.

 

[SunWolf]

Sounds good Hick, thank you for your insight. They are 18 days into 12/12 and the flowers are almost exploding with growth, sounds like time to do a little painting!

 

[Locked]

I like to collect my pollen and then take a fine paint brush and brush the pollen on buds that I mark with a small piece of pipe cleaner. Gonna hit my Larry OG and Pre 98 Bubba soon with some Sour Cataract pollen.

 

[SunWolf]

Sounds like a consensus, thank you all. Tomorrow it is then! This is so much fun!