G
Guest
A bump for Elevator Man's Art Class...
Basic Breeding
- Thread starter ganesh
- Start date
Bass Akwards
Member
How NOT to store pollen
How NOT to store pollen
Two photos in previous posts show quite clearly how Not to store pollen.
When a single branch, or an entire male plant in full bloom, is placed over a flat surface and shaken/tapped/tickled, spare parts of the flowers fall down with the grains of pollen. All of this plant material Must be removed as soon as possible, and not allowed to stay in contact with the pollen. These fallen flower parts are high in moisture. Unless the pollen is used within a few hours, it must be stored Dry, Cool, and Dark. Otherwise, it will rapidly deteriorate.
Though a large, slick, piece of "Deli-Wrap" paper is optimal, newspaper works almost as well. Open a single piece of paper on a hard floor or table surface. shake the plant over the paper until no more pollen drops. Bend both sides of the paper up and tap ... let pollen fall to the middle fold. Let the paper go flat again and use a small, thin, cheap, 2 - 3 in. wide natural fiber brush to sweep the paper from the outside edges towards the middle. Then lift the paper and pour the pollen onto a smaller piece of paper, ( standard 8.5 x 11 ) and then brush on top whatever is left.
Then pour the pollen and flower parts through a fine tea strainer or metal coffee filter. This will remove most of the excess flower parts. Then pour the pollen into a plastic 35 mm film container with a dessicant package or two from a prescription or OTC drug container. ( usually available from your local pharmacy for free ) Then wrap in two layers of plastic bag and place in the freezer ( long term ) or refrigerator ( short term ).
Be sure to let the container get back to room temp. before brushing pollen onto mother plants. A good sized male can be "harvested" for pollen every other day for more than a week, sometimes two. That's enough pollen to last a lifetime, if properly maintained.
Happy Breeding!
How NOT to store pollen
Two photos in previous posts show quite clearly how Not to store pollen.
When a single branch, or an entire male plant in full bloom, is placed over a flat surface and shaken/tapped/tickled, spare parts of the flowers fall down with the grains of pollen. All of this plant material Must be removed as soon as possible, and not allowed to stay in contact with the pollen. These fallen flower parts are high in moisture. Unless the pollen is used within a few hours, it must be stored Dry, Cool, and Dark. Otherwise, it will rapidly deteriorate.
Though a large, slick, piece of "Deli-Wrap" paper is optimal, newspaper works almost as well. Open a single piece of paper on a hard floor or table surface. shake the plant over the paper until no more pollen drops. Bend both sides of the paper up and tap ... let pollen fall to the middle fold. Let the paper go flat again and use a small, thin, cheap, 2 - 3 in. wide natural fiber brush to sweep the paper from the outside edges towards the middle. Then lift the paper and pour the pollen onto a smaller piece of paper, ( standard 8.5 x 11 ) and then brush on top whatever is left.
Then pour the pollen and flower parts through a fine tea strainer or metal coffee filter. This will remove most of the excess flower parts. Then pour the pollen into a plastic 35 mm film container with a dessicant package or two from a prescription or OTC drug container. ( usually available from your local pharmacy for free ) Then wrap in two layers of plastic bag and place in the freezer ( long term ) or refrigerator ( short term ).
Be sure to let the container get back to room temp. before brushing pollen onto mother plants. A good sized male can be "harvested" for pollen every other day for more than a week, sometimes two. That's enough pollen to last a lifetime, if properly maintained.
Happy Breeding!
G
Guest
a few qs? if you are storing the pollen in plastic containers wouldnt some of it stick to the sides? or is that why you mix it with rice or flour and stuff?
and are you saying that new pollen is released every other day from the plant?
sorry i usually chuck the males out. Finally got room to save some males. So i have some qs.
and are you saying that new pollen is released every other day from the plant?
sorry i usually chuck the males out. Finally got room to save some males. So i have some qs.
Kenny Lingus
Active member
you cut it with flour to dilute it and get better control/precision. it is very potent and only the tip of a knife can make hundreds upon hundreds of beans if released above a fully flowering crop.
G
Guest
cool. thanks.
I looked and the pollen has fallen to the leaves. Should I just put that in a little baggie?
I looked and the pollen has fallen to the leaves. Should I just put that in a little baggie?
Yep,collect it all of the leafs as well .
G
Guest
nice. Thanks. Will be having some interesting crosses coming soon 
Midnite Rambler
Member
I realise that there are many variables involved so let's talk averages. Outdoors in an average location I've got an average male and I use a long thin average plastic bag to collect an average amount of pollen from it. I then put the bag over an average branch of one of my average females and give it a dusting. How many seeds on average can I expect to harvest?
Midnite Rambler
Member
Cheers barletta, got to go a tad easy with the pollen eh, I;ve been reading about the dry paint brush technique and it sounds like the way to go???
I was going to pollenate the same way as rudedude suggested but ended up letting them go a little longer than I anticipated. One of my boys ended up blowing his load and now I have to mist my entire basement with water. I'm not really sure what to expect with my future crops but hopefully the damage will be minimal. Just wanted to say be very careful if you dont seperate right after identifying males from females.
