So I have been looking up a few ways to keep males without ruining you crop, and a few people out there, have come up with a solution. It's called a Male Isolation Chamber, and I have just built one for less than $20. I'm going to test this out, and if it works... I will be building one for actually breeding plants as well. There is a PC fan that gently pulls air through an air furnace filter on top. The furnace filter is rated for catching pollen, so many have assumed this will erase potential issues. I will test this out for myself, and see if I can flower a male next to my females without worrying about pollen. If this works, I will never have to build a separate male room. I'll edit this more and create a guide out of it, once I know it works. I'd hate to steer people in the wrong direction. *Edit* PVC Pipe can be used to stabalize the base of this specific box. It also gets it up and out of the water if the chamber is kept on the floor of flower room. I was also thinking that these same PVC Pipes could be modified and attached to the side of the chamber to mount on a wall. These mounts must be screwed firmly in place onto the chamber. I'm just not sure how much weight the plastic could hold before tearing away from a wall mount. The wall mount would be ideal for vertical set-ups. I've also seen versions of these that can have a drip line put into them, so that they don't even need to be opened unless collecting pollen. With my current version, I will have to move the plant to another area of my place before watering the plants. I'll also have to wipe down the outside of it with bleach wipes before putting the chamber back into the room. I was thinking a set-up like this could use window light, maybe? *Second Edit* Legs have been added with the use of PVC pipe and screws. I have also added a tray made out of a cat litter jug. This will fit 3-4 solo cups so small breeding may be possible with this setup. I can also fit a one gallon pot in there, so one male in isolation for pollen could work. It's ghetto as fuck, but it's also money I didn't have to spend. **Third and final edit before testing** Upon further thinking, I have found myself pondering how I am going to keep the pollen under control when I have to water. Therefore, a shelf has been fashioned for up to three plants and has been constructed out of panda plastic and neoprene inserts for the stems. I do not anticipate very big stems, because I am going to flower things very young. Not only can I use a single Male for pollen, but I can also use the other two for test crosses and isolated breeding. Here is the shelf that I have rigged up: One might be thinking... how am I going to keep the pollen from getting out once I have to open the chamber to water? Well, I have devised a solution for that as well. Panda film has been used to seal the back area. Once the plants have been put in and adjusted, the top area can be duct taped closed. The air will still travel through the plugs, so it's not air tight inside. The white side is on the inside of the box to provide some extra reflection inside. Let's Take a look: Once this is done testing, I may have a few upgrades to make, so it doesn't look so ghetto.
Stay tuned for a guide on how to make these! They work No pollen in the grow room, and this box is packed with pollen! Stay tuned for a guide on how to make this, for your own pollen chucking!
I've got enough in there to have at least a quarter cup of pollen. I'm going to be drying it, and storing this pollen for future use! If I do this right, I can keep this pollen from the Jesus OG indefinitely.
Somewhere I had a thread about saving pollen. In march I took a quart jar and filled it with the cheesequake flowers that I used to pollinate my cheese krush. I stored it in the cupboard until the plants started flowering. At around week 3 of bud, ( second/third week of august), for my outdoor plants, I took a bunch of the flower branches and put them in a small vacum cleaner bag. Then I took the bag and put it over a lower bud on each plant and shook the shit out of it. After that I put a string on each branch I pollinated. I ended up getting zero seeds so the pollen was dead. Just fyi.
So there may be a shelf life or requirement for the pollen to store correctly. I know that pollen can be worthless, unless it is fully dry... so there are many factors to consider. I have applied this pollen to a few of my plants via a paint brush, and the sites where i did this have begun to wither so I know the pollen took. The pollen is viable, but the unknown is how long it would store... Thanks for the heads up, Midnight!
. I had to bump this thread. I am going for the breeder newbie title, this is cool. My question is, I have to breed three different males/generations, should I just make a new isolation chamber for each one so I don't mix up any of the pollen or is cleaning sufficient with filter change also?
If you are using different males at one time, you can use separate chambers to keep the pollen separated. I wash my chambers after every use and the pollen is killed off. I have two of them that I use. I have put up to three females into my bigger chamber with a single male.
It would be one after the other, they are going to be months apart because I am cubing the female that has the best pheno I get with reg seeds. I re read The cubing instruction, it said, starting on the second gen Collect an equal quantity of pollen from each selected male, and mix together so I guess that answers my question but I don't know how long this pollen stays good for. I need to check all that out still
I know DJ Short recommends using three males on the selected female, and then working it from there. When I ran Mary Magdalene, there were two different Jesus males in the Chamber with the female. I was only going to use the pollen for this, so I didn't save anything off of it. I prefer to take clones off of my fathers and then flower the whole plant with something. It gives me fresh pollen every time I run something.
