Outdoor pollination techniques, how much isolation is required

[Kreation]

Hello, I'm wondering how isolated individual strains need to be outdoors when breeding, in order to avoid cross pollination. I beleive I read that you could twist your male and female plants together and this would ensure those two plants cross pollinated, and that the pollen would not drift much farther than many feet, I wasn't sure if this made sense but I thought it must be true because I beleive it was Reeferman who said this, any clarification would be great, thanks in advance, Kreation

 

[Vic123]

Unless you isolate them, COMPLETELY, you face pollination from another plant.

Pollen travels miles, and not just feet. It can be carried by wind or a vector, such as any insect, animal, or bird.

 

[Kreation]

Hey Vic 123, I awlays thought this was the case to and that you had to have at least a mile in all directions free from other pollen sources, as well as isolating plants indoors to avoid any cross pollination. However I read a book called Bud INC. by Ian Mulgrew, who interviewed Reeferman for one of his chapters, and I beleive I read that he had his male and female plants twisted together in order to guarantee pollination and had many different strain in the same feild twisted together in this manner, stating that cross pollination or contamination was not a problem, I could however be wrong, I am only relying on memory, so if i'm wrong sorry for stating this but any enlightenment would be appreciated, Reef if you see this I'd love your input, and I apoligize if i'm wrong in saying this was something you said, Peace and Love, Kreation

 

[trichburner]

For a male to pollinate a female from a mile away would be like shooting a dime from a mile away . Possible but very unlikely . Even then under that circumstance , you'll only have a couple seeds at most .

Assuming your plants are sexed , keep the females at least a good 50 yards or so upwind . The more tall standing vegetation between the males and females the better . Keep the males topped so they stay short and side branches pruned , fewer branches = less pollen .

I read a book called Bud INC. by Ian Mulgrew, who interviewed Reeferman for one of his chapters, and I beleive I read that he had his male and female plants twisted together in order to guarantee pollination and had many different strain in the same feild twisted together in this manner, stating that cross pollination or contamination was not a problem

I can vouch for that from experience . I've had males and females within five feet from each other and the males did not pollinate the females untill I pushed them over into the females . I was growing in a corn field and I had kept the plants shorter than the corn . The corn made a very effective wind block .

 

[DonJuanMatus]

i think there are a couple of variables that come in to play in this senario and thats the size of the male, the maturity of the male, and the density of the vegitation surrounding it...a couple years ago i had a 4 foot male a couple hundred feet away from some ladies and the ladies ended up somewhat seeded but i feel this is due to the vegetation being not dense enough and trees around the male to small. from now on if i plan on keeping a male i start em off in buckets till i sex them and then get the male way out of the way atleast a couple hundred feet so 50 yards sounds about right in the right type of vegitation..good luck

 

[Kreation]

Hey Trich Burner That makes good sense, especially if it's forested which it is. I'ts nice to hear from your expereince that it is possible in the right situation. I haven't started my ladies for outdoor yet and for any breeding I am going to do I plan on starting them a bit later because I want to keep them small so I can grow more out in one location with less heat. Thanks for your experience on the pollination isolation, your advice makes good sense.

Hey Seminole Guerilla, Glad you shared your knowledge. Judging by all the information contributed here I have decided it's not worth the risk to try and breed more then one strain within the same area, it is quite windy here and I don't think it's worth risking cross contamination. I plan on doing short plants but growing as many as I can safely plant and removing the worst plants and then leaving the rest to open pollinate, so there will be many males, I could put females of anything I wanted to cross with the ibl's but I don't think I'll risk mixing males, thanks everyone, Kreation