How long does pollen live

doBpop · Jan 24, 2011

The last grow resulted in a couple males and few hermies busting their balls in the growroom (don't want a rerun) so I'm curious about the pollen that would have been sucked into the canfan scrubber that needs to be reused..

This is a completely different/new room this go around but I hate to buy another filter you know.

How long does pollen actually live?

Is there anyway to kill it in the filter? (carbon)
Obviously I can't put water in it soooooooooooo .....

Etc, etc.

As always any help is appreciated welcomed and thanks in advance!

Seamaiden · Jan 25, 2011

Pollen from cannabis tends to be rather shortlived (weeks to months, though I know folks who've managed to keep it viable for a couple of years) unless special precautions are taken to ensure it never comes into contact with moisture. I've learned that even a dewy morning can mean very little of the pollen you apply will take and set seed.

If your goal is to ensure whatever pollen may remain is dead, best bet is to spritz the girls. I would suggest raising humidity to a higher level, but I cannot state unequivocally that this would do the trick the way I know contact with water, even very fine droplets, will.

HTH.

doBpop · Jan 25, 2011

Thanks to everyone for the interest and help.

Hi SeaMaiden! (and thanks)

Since this is a new/different location/setup altogether the main concern is with the canfan/scubber spitting out remaining pollen from the old room into the new room. ISTM that the simple act of the violence of the turbulance, etc and being banged around in the fan/charcoal, etc should hasten the end of life of the pollen. (hopefully)

We definitely don't want any males/pollination this time so wondering if there is anything we can do to hasten and kill the remaining pollen (if any) in the canfan without the additional expense of buying another.

Maybe sit trays of water around it to circulate through it or something possibly - this just sits on the floor with a fan on top for recirculation/scrubbing.

What about misting/soaking the outside of it every hour or so with water maybe. Think the moisture would kill it?

Was hoping possibly someone had experience in this particular situation maybe.

We're a little over two weeks in from seeds so we have some time to ensure the kill before it would be critical.

As always any help is appreciated and welcomed and thanks in advance!

doBpop · Jan 25, 2011

Thanks to everyone for the interest and help.

It's a can 50 so now that I thought about it a little more I can just take the fan off and rotate it around in the bathtub about a foot deep with water for a few minutes.

That ought to do it huh?

As always any help is appreciated and welcomed and thanks in advance!

doBpop · Jan 27, 2011

Thanks to everyone for the interest and help.

Anyone think it will hurt anything to dunk it in the tub and turn it around to make sure everything gets soaked and leave it to dry out throughly?

Then I figured I would put a new prefilter on it and it should be as good as new.
Well as far as residual pollen is concerned that is.

As always any help is appreciated and welcomed and thanks in advance!

lazarus718 · Jan 27, 2011

Interesting dilemma doBpop, only one that comes about from time to time but a good read!!! I personally would take a blow dryer to that be-atch for a couple of minutes, the heat should dry up any moisture in the pollen and I doubt it would survive that. Maybe a rub down with some alcohol and let it dry if you're really concerned.

Seamaiden · Jan 27, 2011

Lazarus, pollen needs to be as dry as possible to remain viable. He wants to kill the pollen, thusly, introduce moisture.

Honestly, doB, I wouldn't worry about it too terribly much. There are just too many ways to kill pollen. I don't use an air filter (though that may be changing soon), so can't tell you with any certainty how to treat your filter.

However, if it were me, I would probably give the carbon a quick rinse (assuming you can get the unit wet) and be done with it.

xX Kid Twist Xx · Jan 27, 2011

if ur really worried about it spitting out any leftover pollen. just run it in a differnt location for a few days, it should push out alot of what is trapped inside, if any. i think the amount of seeds u would get wouldnt be much nayway if u got any at all. so it wouldnt harm your crop.

ookiimata · Jan 27, 2011

I've been wondering the same thing (although for a different reason) for a couple weeks now but hadn't gotten around to researching the answer. So thanks for bringing the question up and thanks for sharing all the great info in response.

lazarus718 · Jan 27, 2011

Seamaiden said:
Lazarus, pollen needs to be as dry as possible to remain viable. He wants to kill the pollen, thusly, introduce moisture.

Yeah, I was just thinking that the high temperature more so than the drying out as a result would be what would lead to destroying the structure of the pollen. I doubt that it would appreciate temps above 150 F and would start to become sterile at the temps produced by a hair dryer. It would be interesting to find out if Lysol or a similar spray cleaner would break it down too.

doBpop · Jan 27, 2011

Thanks to everyone for the interest and help.

Water KILLS pollen on contact ya'll. (learned that from SeaMaiden on last grow)

The question now is not 'how to kill the pollen' but rather can anyone think of any reason not to dunk it and be done with it?

It appears it is made out of galvanized metal so it may not even rust and I don't think water would hurt the charcoal otherwise they wouldn't use it in aqua filters.

Even if it did rust would it hurt anything? (I don't think so but not sure)

I can just wash the prefilter and use it again.

Oh yeah this is going to be a ZERO seed grow this time LOL! (knock wood)

As always any help is appreciated and welcomed and thanks in advance!

Seamaiden · Jan 28, 2011

Water should not affect the carbon, but then I've never filtered air with carbon, only water. I would not want my expensive can filter to become rusty. I like Kid's solution, I think he's probably got it nailed best.

doBpop · Feb 2, 2011

Thanks to everyone for the interest and help.

So the guy from canfan finally got around to answering my email:

Water will ruin the carbon.
Thx.

Hmmmmmmmm .....

As always any help is appreciated and welcomed and thanks in advance!

Silica · Feb 2, 2011

What about ozone? would an ozone gen kill the pollen?

KAL EL · Feb 2, 2011

Water will not kill pollen, it just keeps it from floating through the air.
Think about it, if water killed pollen, rain would kill the rain forests.

Use a mild bleach and water mix or an alcohol and water mix.

baba G · Feb 2, 2011

Pollen is viable for a few days typically when it's in an arid open environment like that. By the time your new plants even have calyxes and the stigma can accept pollen there is no way your pollen in your fan will be cranking out viable pollen in a few weeks....

doBpop · Feb 3, 2011

Thanks to everyone for the interest and help.

I asked this question over in the General Indoor Growing board and never really got an authoritative answer so I feel certain that you breeders know the answer!

How long does pollen live

The last grow resulted in a couple males and few hermies busting their balls in the growroom (don't want a rerun) so I'm curious about the pollen that would have been sucked into the canfan scrubber that needs to be reused..

This is a completely different/new room this go around but I hate to buy another filter you know.

As always any help is appreciated and welcomed and thanks in advance!

doBpop · Mar 10, 2011

Thanks to everyone for the interest and help.

None of you breeders one can answer this question?

As always any help is appreciated and welcomed and thanks in advance!

eyecandi · Mar 10, 2011

the can fan should have caught the pollen. but either way, I believe it's @ 48-72hours maximum in relative temps/humidity. high humidity/fog/spray will also deactivate the pollen. hope that helps

Billygoat · Mar 10, 2011

My rule of thumb is two weeks. I do a couple of things before I clean a room. I raise the temp and humidity to some crazy numbers for a few days also, but two week and you should be golden.

Clean your filter the best you can. Spray it down with some clean water and wipe it down. Use a foxtail hand broom and get all the cracks and clean it well. You should be good to go.

Good luck,
BG

How long does pollen live

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How long does pollen live

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