How long does pollen take to dry when using desiccant?

[deadkndys]

So generally how long does pollen take to dry when using desiccant?


Also would the moisture left in the pollen spoil the pollen if left for 24hrs after dropping?

Thanks.

 

[Only Ornamental]

So generally how long does pollen take to dry when using desiccant?
...

Depends on the amount of pollen, the ratio between pollen and desiccant, which desiccant you use, the temperature at which you dry, and even a lil bit on the air humidity in the 'drying vessel' .
Pollen, because it's very small 'grains', dries rather fast...

 

[deadkndys]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

The pollen amount if very minuscule as there were only a few sacs on the bud. I actually made my own desiccant, (Magnesium Sulfate) by baking epsom salt for 2 hours at 425. and the temps outside of the sealed contained range from 75-80. Can't say the same for the inside. (or the humidity for that matter). Also there is far more desiccant then pollen lol.

 

[VerdantGreen]

for small amounts i dry it for 24 hours or so. then freeze.

 

[Only Ornamental]

... I actually made my own desiccant, (Magnesium Sulfate) by baking epsom salt for 2 hours at 425. ...

Magnesium sulfate is great for drying liquids but not so much when used in air... the relative humidity above a saturated MgSO4 solution (or dry salt) is roughly 80%... true, this would be in its hydrated form but it gives an idea that it doesn't really speed up things . Even table salt or dried rice are more effective!
A very strong and quick desiccant would be potassium hydroxide (sodium hydroxide is nearly too strong), though it's very caustic to seeds and your eyes.
Calcium and magnesium chlorides would be very effective, safe, and cheap.

 

[VerdantGreen]

i just keep hold of all the silica gel dessicant sachets that come in the boxes with electrical goods and many other products and use them for the drying.

VG

 

[Betterhaff]

Can you over dry pollen, meaning can you extract too much moisture by using desiccants? I thought I’ve seen pictures of pollen that was over dried. I usually use fresh but I have some pollen I want to freeze and don’t want to overdo it.

I dried it for a couple days, put it in small parchment envelopes, put those in a baggie and put the baggies in a small mason jar with a couple of small desiccant packs and put in the freezer.

 

[Only Ornamental]

In the beginning, I was also using those small desiccant packages alongside those in the caps of fizzy tablets. Now I bought some blue gel beads on Amazon which, quite practical, have pretty much the same size than the seeds. As blue gel contains cobalt chloride as indicator, direct contact with the seeds has to be omitted at any price (cobalt, besides being mutagenic, is an ethylene inhibitor and may interfere with breaking seed dormancy).

I suppose one can overdry... I'm honestly not sure though. I'm more concerned about the speed of drying than the final water content.
For freezing, a moisture content of 5-10% is usually used (5% being better). Anyway, to get below this value is difficult without a high-performance vacuum pump or a very strong desiccant like NaOH (which might dry to fast, rupturing 'things') or chemical water removal (sodium, calcium hydride, phosphor pentoxide, or the mentioned MgSO4 or Na2SO4 given enough time).

 

[VerdantGreen]

i wouldnt worry about overdrying, same with seeds, its pretty hard to get below 5% without special equipment as OO says.

my advice would be to freeze a few small batches separately - every day or so as you get more pollen drop to dry - this makes them easier to use and also ive found that some batches will stay viable and others wont - so i either re-pollinate with a different batch if the first try doest take, or mix two batches together for a bigger pollenation.

 

[Betterhaff]

Thanks OO and VG. I had a couple of males dropping pollen for a couple of weeks and that’s what I did. Collected daily, let it dry a bit, put in small packs, and then in a baggie and jar keeping everything separate. It was almost like an assembly line. So I’ll have packets I can pull out as needed quickly and keep the rest in the deep freeze.

What’s the shelf life of pollen after you take it out of the freezer, a few days?

 

[neongreen]

What’s the shelf life of pollen after you take it out of the freezer, a few days?

You need to use it immediately - just let it thaw out in it's packaging (so that any condensation stays on the outside) and use as soon as it has come up to temperature.