vicious bee
Member
Someone was asking about pollination and here's some tricks that seem to work for me.
1st here's some males that are crowded together with pollen catchers at their bases. The pollen catchers are made of wax paper, drinking straws with the accordion type bending on one end, a small clothes line type clip, and clear packing tape to tape the whole mess together.
I first use a mirror and bending the plants over the mirror shake them. Collecting the pollen on the mirror.
Below you see pollen and flowers collected in the pollen catcher and the little clip that holds up one side.
I unclip one side and use a small artist brush to brush all the flowers off the wax paper onto the mirror which is held below.
This shows it with the mirror placed below the wax paper.
Here's the back of the pollen catcher. It has 5 straws. Two in front and two in back. I'll get to the fifth in a moment. Notice the wax paper is at an angle tilted to the front so that the pollen falls out when you need it to.
Here's the fifth straw. It's in between the front two straws but offset to one side. It holds up the clip. Without it the wax paper sags and will not catch your pollen.
Next picture is the fifth straw with the clip. See how it holds up the clip?
Now all the pollen is shaken off the plants and the catcher cleaned of pollen and flowers. Scrap it all in a pile. The flowers and pollen are all mixed up on the mirror.
You have to separate the pollen from the flowers. I use a 200 mesh piece of stainless steel screen that I bought from Small Parts. They sell small quantitys of all kinds of neat stuff. Here's the flowers and pollen scooped up and placed on the mesh screen.
I use the artist brush to move the flowers around and brush the pollen through the screen mesh. I then raise all the edges of the screen kind of like a tea bag holds tea. I give the mesh sharp little taps to dislodge the last of the pollen. Here's the cleaned pollen.
I store it in little test tubes I bought on ebay. I read a lot about storing seeds, pollen, etc. and the main thing seems to be getting it as dry as possible. I did a lot of searching and testing. I found the simplest way to dry is to use wheat flower and rice. I put rice and wheat flower in small jelly mason jars. I then put the jars in a toaster oven on very low temp. Maybe 125 Deg. F or less. You don't want to burn the wheat flower or rice. I leave it for about five days then put the top on the mason jars to keep moisture out. I did a test with all kinds of desiccants in mason jars and good old dried rice and wheat flower did great. I put two small humidity meters in the jars for several days with the rice and wheat flour and they read below 4% humidity. I read, I can't remember if it was D.J. Short or who, about thinning pollen with wheat flower. I thought using it to dry it out at the same time might be a good idea. I add about 100% or more wheat flower to my pollen in the test tubes. If I'm not using the pollen right away I add the wheat flower and rice immediately to the pollen. I then roll the test tube around until the flower and pollen are thoroughly mixed. I then store in the frig. .To use the pollen later I just dip the artist brush into the test tube and paint the buds. Another idea, I can't remember if I thought this up or someone else did, is to pollinate one plant with multiple strains of pollen. Tap water deactivates pollen. When you pollinate a plant you want to separate it for a day or so then spray the plant with water so the pollen on it will be deactivated. This will keep the pollen off of your other plants. I use this to selectively pollinate separate branches. I like to plan and pollinate the bottom branches first. He's an example. I had a Short Term Amnesia female. I pollinated the bottom branches with a male Ducksfoot. I waited a few days then pollinated the upper buds with STA male pollen. To keep STA pollen off of the Ducksfoot pollinated branches I sprayed tap water with a hand held sprayer on the buds I pollinated with Ducksfoot pollen. That way any pollen falling on the Duck pollinated buds would be inactivated.
One other thing. I use a lot of straws to prop up my males. They don't have a fan on them so they never become very strong and have a tendency to fall over. Here's a picture.
See the straw below? That's where the plant started leaning over. I taped straws to it to support it. Above the straw is where it fell over from me shaking the pollen off. Here's a picture where i used packing tap to tape it back up straight.
Maybe this will help you out a little. I don't claim it's the best way or even the right way but it works well for me. One last picture. This is a Short Term Amnesia male. Look at the resin on this male flower. I've been collecting all my STA pollen and mixing it but this ones going to have to be separated. It's smells divine.
1st here's some males that are crowded together with pollen catchers at their bases. The pollen catchers are made of wax paper, drinking straws with the accordion type bending on one end, a small clothes line type clip, and clear packing tape to tape the whole mess together.
I first use a mirror and bending the plants over the mirror shake them. Collecting the pollen on the mirror.
Below you see pollen and flowers collected in the pollen catcher and the little clip that holds up one side.
I unclip one side and use a small artist brush to brush all the flowers off the wax paper onto the mirror which is held below.
This shows it with the mirror placed below the wax paper.
Here's the back of the pollen catcher. It has 5 straws. Two in front and two in back. I'll get to the fifth in a moment. Notice the wax paper is at an angle tilted to the front so that the pollen falls out when you need it to.
Here's the fifth straw. It's in between the front two straws but offset to one side. It holds up the clip. Without it the wax paper sags and will not catch your pollen.
Next picture is the fifth straw with the clip. See how it holds up the clip?
Now all the pollen is shaken off the plants and the catcher cleaned of pollen and flowers. Scrap it all in a pile. The flowers and pollen are all mixed up on the mirror.
You have to separate the pollen from the flowers. I use a 200 mesh piece of stainless steel screen that I bought from Small Parts. They sell small quantitys of all kinds of neat stuff. Here's the flowers and pollen scooped up and placed on the mesh screen.
I use the artist brush to move the flowers around and brush the pollen through the screen mesh. I then raise all the edges of the screen kind of like a tea bag holds tea. I give the mesh sharp little taps to dislodge the last of the pollen. Here's the cleaned pollen.
I store it in little test tubes I bought on ebay. I read a lot about storing seeds, pollen, etc. and the main thing seems to be getting it as dry as possible. I did a lot of searching and testing. I found the simplest way to dry is to use wheat flower and rice. I put rice and wheat flower in small jelly mason jars. I then put the jars in a toaster oven on very low temp. Maybe 125 Deg. F or less. You don't want to burn the wheat flower or rice. I leave it for about five days then put the top on the mason jars to keep moisture out. I did a test with all kinds of desiccants in mason jars and good old dried rice and wheat flower did great. I put two small humidity meters in the jars for several days with the rice and wheat flour and they read below 4% humidity. I read, I can't remember if it was D.J. Short or who, about thinning pollen with wheat flower. I thought using it to dry it out at the same time might be a good idea. I add about 100% or more wheat flower to my pollen in the test tubes. If I'm not using the pollen right away I add the wheat flower and rice immediately to the pollen. I then roll the test tube around until the flower and pollen are thoroughly mixed. I then store in the frig. .To use the pollen later I just dip the artist brush into the test tube and paint the buds. Another idea, I can't remember if I thought this up or someone else did, is to pollinate one plant with multiple strains of pollen. Tap water deactivates pollen. When you pollinate a plant you want to separate it for a day or so then spray the plant with water so the pollen on it will be deactivated. This will keep the pollen off of your other plants. I use this to selectively pollinate separate branches. I like to plan and pollinate the bottom branches first. He's an example. I had a Short Term Amnesia female. I pollinated the bottom branches with a male Ducksfoot. I waited a few days then pollinated the upper buds with STA male pollen. To keep STA pollen off of the Ducksfoot pollinated branches I sprayed tap water with a hand held sprayer on the buds I pollinated with Ducksfoot pollen. That way any pollen falling on the Duck pollinated buds would be inactivated.
One other thing. I use a lot of straws to prop up my males. They don't have a fan on them so they never become very strong and have a tendency to fall over. Here's a picture.
See the straw below? That's where the plant started leaning over. I taped straws to it to support it. Above the straw is where it fell over from me shaking the pollen off. Here's a picture where i used packing tap to tape it back up straight.
Maybe this will help you out a little. I don't claim it's the best way or even the right way but it works well for me. One last picture. This is a Short Term Amnesia male. Look at the resin on this male flower. I've been collecting all my STA pollen and mixing it but this ones going to have to be separated. It's smells divine.
