Has anyone made or used either colloidal silver or silver thiosulfate to coax their girl to make pollen for seed propagation?
I am planning to do it.
colloidal silver us easy to comeby but has to be applied twice daily for a while, i think until flowering initiates and possibly longer.
silver thiosulfate is more technique sensitive but is applied once every 5 days. so more work and caustic chemicals, precisely measured up front but the only reapplied every 5 days for 30 days.
Colloidal silver can be made using electrolysis (i need to study the process) with pure silver, cheaply and safely. im not sure about the mechanism of action here.
Silver thiosulfate requires some measuring and
mixing steps, multiple air tight light blocking glass containers (one with a spray top), stored in a fridge. this approach blocks ethylene production and causes the female to develop male sex. it wears off in about 5 days and ethylene production will resume, hence reapplication. it appears silver thiosulfate can be purchased as a salt in granular form on the relatively affordable side, but idk if there is any reason to mix/create ones own.
I think both can be used selectively on a single branch of the treated plant.
I will separate with treated branch with plastic. (a plastic bag?) and chop the branch prior to the pollen sacks opening. then collect pollen. add toasted flour to dilute the very potent pollen and store in a light proof container in the freezer.
im leaning toward silver thiosulfate and if i can use granular sts itll be so much easier that might be best for me.
i found a couple of resources that look pretty good, as well as an overview from none other than our own Robert Bergman
Search for Crystal Farms Feminising Spray. I haven’t used it yet but supposedly it works in one use. I can’t post a link because the only place I know to get it is a seed seller. But it has a good explanation and i know several people using it to make their own seeds or hybrids with good results.
yes, i can buy colloidal silver, but i understand its usually not as high quality as home made. and it sounds fun to make at home.
im def gonna look up crystal farms fem spray. single does sounds like my speed, but i dont want to masculinize the whole bush… so i gotta read up carefully
Well, it’s food grade, so that’s pretty high quality. I guess for something like this, I don’t see the need to reinvent the wheel. Just my personal view.
Hope you are able to get your breeding experiment off the ground soon so we can see your results.
im not reinventing. its a common enough approach to make ones own colloidal silver. either way- i prefer a single application method as mentioned before or making a solution from crystallized silver thiosulfate since thats once a 5 day application process. both are better than colloidal silver which requires twice daily dosages. i may not be able to follow through with that due to work.
ok got it. ya they say a single treatment will turn flowers to pollen. That seems like exactly what im looking for … why i started this topic. Now i gotta buy it and see if it works
I’ve had 2 false starts but I’ll get there. First try my timing sucked and I needed the grow space. 2nd attempt outdoors, my plants got damaged before I could spray. I’m going to use the STS method.
