By RQS Editorial Team


Pollen is not very desirable among those growing cannabis for consumption. However, it does have its uses if you're looking to preserve genetics or breed your own strains. It is also relatively simple to collect and store. Read on to find out more about cannabis pollen, how to use it, collect it, and store it.

What Is Cannabis Pollen and What Is Its Function?

You should be familiar with pollen. It is the fine, powdery, yellow-hued substance created by all flowering or cone-bearing plants. Pollen’s primary purpose is to fertilise other plants of the same species. Pollen can be considered very useful or unuseful, depending on your reason for growing cannabis.

  • How and When Is Cannabis Pollen Released?

Pollen sacs are the reproductive organs of the male cannabis plant. These sacs develop during the late-vegetative stage at the nodes—the point(s) at which the stems/leaves and branches meet. Once a male plant reaches maturity, roughly 4 to 5 weeks into the flowering stage, the sacs open and release pollen into the air. The pollen travels on the wind and lands on a female cannabis plant, fertilising it. The female will then grow seeds that carry genes from both the female and male to perpetuate the species.

What Does a Male Cannabis Plant Look Like?

Cannabis plants are so-called dioecious plants; they produce either male or female reproductive organs. Male weed pollen sacs are easily distinguishable. They look like small bananas hanging from the nodes of the plant. This is in contrast to the wispy, upward-facing hairs (stigmas) you will find on the female plant.

  • Is Pollen Only Made by Male Cannabis Plants?

Pollen sacs only grow on male cannabis plants. However, the male flowers on hermaphrodite cannabis plants can also generate the reproductive parts needed to create and release pollen. When cannabis plants turn “hermaphrodite”, they do so to pollinate themselves.

The ability to turn hermaphrodite is a clever evolutionary technique employed by the cannabis plant to preserve the species in unfavourable conditions. The transformational process allows the plant to produce seeds by itself, even when no males are around. This could be, for example, because some environmental stress factor has wiped out all the males.

Close-up of a male cannabis plant with pollen sacs, illustrating pollen production in cannabis on a dark green background, ideal for cannabis biology guides.

Is Cannabis Pollen Useful?

By and large, the female cannabis plant is more popular among growers than the male. After all, it is the female that produces the trichome/resin-laden bud that we harvest to smoke, vape, or infuse. Female buds contain all of the active components we associate with cannabis, such as cannabinoids (e.g. THC and CBD) and terpenes. However, the female plant can only produce these resinous, phytochemical-packed buds if she remains unfertilised.

For the average hobby grower, male cannabis plants are generally considered undesirable, and are fastidiously removed from the grow room if they do happen to pop up. For the most part, male cannabis plants exist to release pollen into the air to fertilise females. When this occurs, it spells the end for any hopes of yielding top-quality smokeable material.

Instead, if fertilised, the female flower will start producing seeds. Seeds will add a harsh, undesirable taste to your end product. The production of seeds also takes a lot of energy, diverting resources away from developing cannabinoids and terpenes.

With all that said, pollen from the male cannabis plant is necessary for those looking to breed cannabis strains, and is also useful for those looking to preserve the genetics of a certain strain.

  • Using Cannabis Pollen for Breeding

Planning and precision are necessary for those who want to crossbreed specific strains using pollen. In the natural world, cannabis pollen would be carried on the wind to fertilise female plants by chance. Indoor growers will need to purposely collect pollen from the male plant and place it on the female reproductive parts to fertilise the female and produce seeds.

How to Harvest Cannabis Pollen

If you are going down the breeding route, the first thing to do is collect pollen from your male plant. If possible, you should use the pollen straight away to avoid any degradation in quality. After the male plant has developed its pollen sacs, you must monitor them closely. Cannabis pollen is generally viable for 2–3 days in natural conditions. Knowing how long before male pollen sacs open is an advanced skill.

When they look like they are starting to open, the pollen sacs should be collected and bagged. It’s best to take the whole male flower cluster. This can then be squeezed and shaken over a fine micro-mesh screen onto parchment paper to separate the pollen.

After filtration, use a clean brush to spread the pollen out on the paper, and place it in a shaded, dry, warm area. Allow the pollen to dry out for 48 hours, and then use it or store it. Ideally, you want a temperature range of 18–24°C, with a relative humidity of 30–60%.

How to Harvest Cannabis Pollen
  • Preparing and Storing Cannabis Pollen

If you’re looking to store your weed pollen, first allow the flower clusters to dry out in an airtight storage container for around seven days. Once thoroughly dried, place the cluster(s) over a very fine micron screen and agitate gently to remove as much pollen as possible. The screen should stop any other plant material from getting through.

It is advisable to wear latex gloves when handling pollen. A mask is a good idea too, especially if you have hay fever. The last thing you want is to have a sneezing fit. Prep your work area as best you can before starting the collection process. The slightest air disturbance as you reach for something can blow the pollen away.

Excess moisture can damage the quality of the pollen. This is because pollen grains do not have a protective outer shell. As a result, they quickly decompose when in contact with moisture. Use a container lined with parchment paper under the screen to absorb excess moisture. Some growers mix a small quantity of flour with the pollen before storing, as it keeps moisture at bay and helps to stretch out the supply a bit further.

The average ratio for flour to pollen is around 1:5. Once you have collected all the pollen, seal your airtight container and keep it in a cool, dark, dry place. You can keep it in the fridge or freezer for very long-term storage. The colder, the better. When frozen and sealed, pollen can keep for 12 months or longer.

  • How to Handle Cannabis Pollen After Storage

In the case of pollen that has been frozen, do not defrost until you are ready to use it. Re-freezing and thawing again will degrade the quality. Instabilities in temperature and moisture content can quickly destroy pollen viability. Maintain a steady temperature for as long as possible when defrosting. Ideally, get your pollen up to room temperature before attempting to introduce it to a female plant.

How to Introduce Marijuana Pollen to Your Female Plant

Close-up of a male cannabis plant with pollen sacs, demonstrating how to collect pollen for female plant pollination on a dark green background, ideal for cannabis breeding guides.

Breeding is an intricate subject that you should research thoroughly before attempting. Here, however, is a very general overview of how you would pollinate your female cannabis plant.

Pollen should be introduced to the female between days 14 and 21 into her flowering stage. The pollen needs to be applied on the stigmas—the tiny white hairs we mentioned earlier—located at the nodes. These stigmas are what will collect the pollen and fertilise the plant.

There are many different methods of administering your collected pollen. It can be dabbed, brushed, or even blown onto the buds. Pollen is fine, light, and quickly delivered, so this process should be done in a sealed room. If you are doing it in your grow room, turn all your fans and extraction off first.

Why Should I Collect Cannabis Pollen?

There may be times when you want to mix and match your favourite strains to create a whole new one. In these cases, cannabis pollen is the perfect solution. Moreover, if you're trying to hold on to some prized genetics, but don't want to maintain a mother plant, harvesting cannabis pollen is a great, no-fuss alternative, and requires a lot less room and resources.

It is possible to buy readily extracted pollen in certain regions. But it can be expensive and tricky to find, depending on your location. All it takes, though, is a little bit of time, patience, and some simple equipment, and you could be building up stores of your favourite cannabis genetics in no time.

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Privacy Policy - Royal Queen Seeds

To ensure a safe online environment and guarantee adequate data protection, we strictly comply with all legal requirements. In this privacy statement, we provide information about how and for what purpose data is collected, safety measures, storage periods and contact details.


COMPANY NAME: SNORKEL SPAIN, SL (hereinafter ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS)

C/ Vilar d'Abdelà, 5 (nave 1) CP: 08170 de Montornès del Vallès

+34 937 379 846

support@royalqueenseeds.com


The present Privacy Policy sets out the terms on which we will treat personal data at ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS; this includes any personal data collected through our website https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/ as well as any other data we process in the course of our business activities.

ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS collects the following personal data for the purposes listed below:

SECTION 1 – PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

1.1 Account purchases

Account purchases can only be made if you are in possession of a personal account. When you create an account or purchase something from our shop, as part of the buying and selling process we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:

This information is required for delivery. In addition, when you browse our shop, we automatically receive the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer. Based on this information, we can optimise your online experience and at the same time protect our online environment.

Purpose of data collection

We collect and store account-related data for the following purposes:

(a) to carry out obligations arising from any contracts between you and us, and to provide you with information, products and services that you may request from us;

(b) to set up, manage and communicate with you about your account and your orders;

(c) to conduct market research and analysis;

(d) to confirm your age and identity, and to detect and prevent fraud.

1.2 Newsletters

With your explicit permission, we may send you newsletters about our shop, new products and other updates. We send newsletters based on your explicit consent. In the event that you purchase a product, and in accordance with current regulations, we may send you commercial communications in accordance with the legitimate interest of our company, always about products or services similar to those you have purchased or contracted. In any case, you may exercise your right of opposition through the channels announced in this Privacy Policy. The following information is collected in relation to the newsletter:

We do not need to know the sex of the person in order to send the newsletter (data minimisation: by law we must ask for data that is strictly necessary to provide the service, and in this case knowing the sex is not necessary to send the newsletter).

Purpose of data collection

The data collected is used to:

(a) personalise our emails, including your name and gender;

(b) provide gender-specific content.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by using the link provided in the newsletter or the contact information provided in section 2.

1.3 Customer service and contact form

In order to provide appropriate support, our customer service employees have access to information related to the account. Consequently, their support will be highly effective and friendly. The data provided in our contact form is used by our CRM provider, SuperOffice. We will only use your details to respond to your message.

SECTION 2 – LEGITIMATE INTEREST

If you have purchased any of our products, please note that we may process your personal data for promotional purposes, based on Royal Queen Seeds' legitimate interest only to offer you products or services from our company and about products or services similar to those you have purchased. You may exercise your right to opt out of future messages by the means set out in this Privacy Policy or through any notification you receive.

2.1 How do you withdraw consent?

If you change your mind, you can withdraw your consent for us to contact you for the purpose of collecting, using, or disclosing your data at any time by reaching out to us at: support@royalqueenseeds.com.

SECTION 3 – DISCLOSURE

We may disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by law or if you breach our Terms of Service.

SECTION 4 – HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

At Royal Queen Seeds, we will not retain your data for longer than is necessary for the purposes described in this Policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data; however, the longest period we will normally hold any personal data is 10 years.

4.1 Account information

Data relating to the account remains relevant for as long as the consumer is in possession of an account. Therefore, the data remains documented for as long as the account exists. When our customers delete an account, the associated data will be deleted within a reasonable period of time. Requests regarding the inspection or correction of stored personal data or the deletion of an account can be sent to support@royalqueenseeds.com.

4.2 Newsletters

In the event that you give us your consent to inform you about our products or services, we will keep your data until you express your wish not to receive any further communications from us. However, we regularly (every month) carry out a relevance check. Registered customers (and their personal information) will be deleted whenever customers do not reply to our request. In addition, our newsletter mailing has an opt-out feature. Consumers can withdraw their consent by using this opt-out feature.

SECTION 5 – COOKIES

Cookies are small information files that notify your computer of previous interactions with our website. These cookies are stored on your hard drive, not on our website. Essentially, when you use our website, your computer displays its cookies to us, informing our site that you have visited before. This allows our website to function more quickly and remember aspects related to your previous visits (such as your username), making your experience more convenient. At Royal Queen Seeds, we use two types of cookies: functional and analytical.

5.1 Functional Cookies

Functional cookies are used to enhance your online experience. Among other things, these cookies track what is added to your shopping cart. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

5.2 Analytical Cookies

Analytical cookies are used for research and market analysis. The data collected with these analytical cookies is anonymous, making it unusable for third parties. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

SECTION 5 – THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

Third-party services are required to conduct transactions and provide our services. In general, the third-party providers we use will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to enable them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies regarding the information we must provide to them for your transactions.

We encourage you to read the privacy policies of these providers so that you can understand how these providers will handle your personal information.

In particular, certain suppliers may be located or have facilities located in a different jurisdiction than yours or ours. Therefore, if you choose to proceed with a transaction involving the services of a third party, your information may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which that service provider or its facilities are located.

Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service of our website.

Web analytics service (anonymous data)

On this website we have integrated an element of a web analytics service (with anonymisation functionality). Web analytics can be defined as the gathering, processing and analysis of data about the behaviour of visitors to websites. An analytics service collects, among other things, data about which website a person came from (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages they visited or how often and for how long they visited a sub-page. Web analytics is mainly used for website optimisation and for a cost–benefit analysis of internet advertising.

Courier service

To complete deliveries we use a courier service. This courier service carries out the delivery between our company and the consumer's home. To complete these logistics, the company requires access to the consumer's name and address information.

Mailing service

Royal Queen Seeds uses a third-party mail service provider to send its newsletter. This provider has access to limited account information related to opt-in consent (e.g. email address).

Marketing services

Royal Queen Seeds has the support of a company that specialises in marketing and communication activities. Their access to personal information is very limited and mostly anonymous.

Payment services

At Royal Queen Seeds we use external payment services to handle our transactions (e.g. credit card payments).

SECTION 6 – SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry standard best practices to ensure that it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored using AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional industry standards that are commonly accepted. Information related to the account is protected with a hashing method. This method transforms the information into a generated hash. As a result, confidential information is protected and invisible, even to us. In addition, our databases are exceptionally protected against unauthorised access. For example, access to the database is only possible and permitted via approved IP addresses (e.g. from Royal Queen Seeds headquarters). Other attempts and addresses are rejected at all times.

Furthermore, data is anonymised as much as possible, so it cannot be directly linked to a specific consumer. With this data, however, we may be able to carry out market research and analysis. In addition, the third parties concerned (e.g. mailing service) are examined prior to our collaboration, comply with the GDPR from the EU and receive a processing agreement. Within Royal Queen Seeds, employees are assigned different access permissions. Specific permission provides access only to information that is strictly required to perform a task. Digital security measures are subject to change and must meet high requirements to ensure the safety of online customers. That is why, at Royal Queen Seeds, we appoint a security officer. Regular verification and improvement of security measures (where necessary) are part of the role.

SECTION 7 – CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please check back regularly. Changes and clarifications will be effective immediately upon being published on the Website. If we make substantial changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated so you will know what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

SECTION 8 – YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO: