Pollinating Pre Flowers

[Wetdog]

Somewhere, someone made the statement that this is what breeders do if they just need a few seeds. I didn't know one way or the other and never commented on it.

Anyway, my kid was growing out a bagseed for practice and it turned out male. He was mad, hoping for at least a hermi. I had some clones left over from making new host plants and decided to see what was what.

I had 3 cuts in gallon pots and 5 more in party cups, all under 18/6 and all loaded with pre flowers. I moved them outside around the male for three or four days. They all got pollinated.

Then I went one step further with this little experiment. The 3 in gallons I left outside, but the party cups got brought back in to 18/6 and 2 T-12 shop lights (4-40w bulbs).

The surprising thing is, the ones under the T-12's had next to zero white/immature seeds. The ones outside didn't have many, but more.

The seeds are still drying in a paper bag and then into the fridge for a 'winter' nap and then I'll see about germination rates and so on.

So, apparently you can pollinate pre flowers for a few beans and the nice part is, they will develop under low light and a 18/6 light schedule.:holysheep:

Wet

 

[Hick]

I've occasionally had a seed on pre-flowers, from allowing a male too close for too long before culling in OD guerrilla grows. But I've never specifically targeted them.
:aok:

 

[4u2sm0ke]

My Buddy Ray jay had a a seed from prflower..and is growing that one out now...IMO..the Hair is still a hair and the pollen is still pollen. Not sure How it developes without flower cycle but it did. we will have the final product to sample soon...


take care and be safe:bolt::bong:

 

[Wetdog]

.IMO..the Hair is still a hair and the pollen is still pollen. Not sure How it developes without flower cycle but it did.

Yeah, same here.

The interesting thing to me, was that the seeds developed not only under the 18/6 schedule, but also under the very low powered clone lights.

Nothing earth shaking, but a useful tidbit to be stored away. Like Hick, I've never targeted pre flowers, but now I know I can.

Might be useful, especially in a cubing scenario. Who knows?

Wet

 

[Wetdog]

Well, I decided to do some cubing with my un named long term strain and had some interesting results with the seedlings/mix.

I was just looking for males, so after the seeds were dried and spent about a month in the fridge, I decided to give it a shot.

Used 8 party cups and some mix that didn't turn out well. I had used both EWC and mushroom compost and it was entirely too heavy despite all the extra perlite I added. It will get dumped on the garden as plants get harvested, all container veggies.

Anyway, I used 4 seeds/cup and in the mix, no soaking, no paper towel. Only one cup had 3 pop, the others were 100%.

Had 2 seeds left over and just for laughs stuck them in the top of a 5 gal bucket that I had recently harvested shallots from and hadn't recycled yet. This was also a different mix, a little different, just for the garlic and shallots. Much more in the way of minerals and stuff.

Anyway, ~1 month later, the seedlings in the cups are ~3-4" tall. I did thin them out and left the ones with the longest internodes/most 'male' looking and upcanned to 1 gal pots a couple of weeks ago.

The 2 in the 5G bucket are easily 5x as big with side branching and one has male flowers starting. The difference is stunning. All have gotten water only and are outside in full sun. The only difference was the mix they were in.

LOL, I think I'll keep duplicating that Allium mix.:icon_smile:

I'm going to toss all the stunted seedlings since I have my male. Funny thing is, the other one hasn't shown any pre flowers yet, but is growing just as strong. I will also never use mushroom compost again, at least not with EWC.

Wet

 

[4u2sm0ke]

:ciao:

Mojo for the Grow wet

:48:

 

[Rosebud]

Wow. that was a surprise I bet..very cool 5 times bigger. Interesting...Have a great grow WD.

 

[Wetdog]

Wow. that was a surprise I bet..very cool 5 times bigger. Interesting...Have a great grow WD.

Thanks, it really told me a lot about the mixes and amendments.

Won't be much of a grow. As soon as the 2 clones get knocked up, I'm going to chop everything and bring the clones in to mature the seeds.

Got enough on my plate to be messing with F1 seedlings. The F2's and 3's are a different story.

Wet

 

[Wetdog]

DOH!!!! :doh: :hitchair:

Sitting outside having a beer and a smoke watching the male pollinate the 2 lucky clones something dawned on me.

That 5 gallon bucket that the 2 seedlings are in (the ones that are 5x as big as all the others), was part of my "Grow your own Mycorrhizae" experiment that I started last fall. That thread got lost in the crash, but I'll try and recreate it.

I really can't say that the huge growth difference was due to just that since the other mix was less than good,

But, if it was ..... :holysheep: :icon_smile:

Wet