Pollen Collection for Crossing

[PaddyMc]

Originally Posted by rubbe87

i cant find any pollen not even in the old flowers

What is your air temperature and humidity? To hot and humid, and it's hard to get pollen to release.

[crmauch]

Originally Posted by crmauch

[COLOR=black]I don't like the toothbrush method to gather pollen. I have experienced a few times of great success, but many more times where I got no pollen at all.

I realize I need to modify my statement here ... I'm being too absolutist here. The vibration/"toothbrush" method is fine, even great! ... if it works. The process I described is good for those times when the toothbrush method doesn't work, or needs supplemented.

[crmauch]

Originally Posted by rubbe87

i cant find any pollen not even in the old flowers

Can you give us more description of what you're trying, so we can help? When you say 'old flowers' what do you mean?

[KarenO]

Time of day seems to make a difference for me. Mid-day up to say 4pm seems best here as far as blooms giving up pollen.
KarenO

[rubbe87]

Originally Posted by PaddyMc

What is your air temperature and humidity? To hot and humid, and it's hard to get pollen to release.

it has been mostly too cold but now it has been around 40 Celsius for a week or so and before it was around 13 Celsius.

[rubbe87]

Originally Posted by crmauch

Can you give us more description of what you're trying, so we can help? When you say 'old flowers' what do you mean?

I mean when they are falling of. they are clearly pollinating since i see tomatoes starting to grow but i have jet to find a single spec of pollen at any age. i would like to cross pollinate but hard whit no pollen.

[crmauch]

Originally Posted by rubbe87

I mean when they are falling of. they are clearly pollinating since i see tomatoes starting to grow but i have jet to find a single spec of pollen at any age. i would like to cross pollinate but hard whit no pollen.

When the blossoms are fading/falling off they are to far gone, I doubt you can get pollen from those. The best time (unless others have a better time) is when the blossom is fully open.

The two basic ways of gathering (for tomatoes) have been described here, but I'll briefly reiterate them here:

For both: Find an open blossom.

1) Have a electric toothbrush (or the device pointed to earlier in this thread) as a sourse of vibration and either an sunglass lens (see dollar store and buy wireframe sunglasses and remove the lenses from the frames), or a black plastic spoon as a pollen receiver (something black and somewhat shiny so the pollen can be seen). Hold the pollen reciever close to but below the tip of the anther cone. Take the vibration source and while its vibrating touch it to the back of the tomato blossom. In the best cases you'll get a lot of pollen, but if temp, humidity (or even pollen eating insects) can affect your result.

2) If you've tried (1) and it didn't work. pick the blossom (if possible several) and take them inside your home. You'll need the lens or other item, a small dish, and a toothpick (additionally tweezers are good too.) Strip the blossom to the anther cone. Place the lens in the small dish and place the anther cone on the lens. Let sit overnight. The anther cone should be dry by now. Pick up the anther cone w/ tweezers, and tap the dried cone (or cone pieces) over the dish to release pollen. If tapping doesn't work you can scrape the toothpick gently over the inside of the anther to release pollen. You may get some pieces of anther, but that won't hurt.

After either method, you can store your lens in a small plastic container, ideally with a dehydrating cylinder or packet such as found in pill bottles. Label the container with the date and type of pollen. Use for the season.

When going to use the pollen, take the container from the refrigerator and let the container warm up slightly before opening (otherwise you might get moisture condensing on the lens). Use the lens to gently apply pollen to your emasculated blossoms.