Emasculating small and/or delicate flowers

[Dane S]

Anyone have any tips or suggestions to help make this a lil more doable.
I have been collecting pollen from a pimpinellifolium to cross with a few different varieties. I would also be interested in creating reciprocal crosses or even just using it as a female parent.
But..... the flowers are so small and delicate. any attempt to open the flower results in the petals anther cone and pistil popping off as one. I have tried several different utensils. To make matters especially challenging the anthers of this variety are fully fused very tightly around the pistil.
I have however made a little progress with all the blossoms I've mutilated.
I hold the blossom between thumb and forefinger; very gingerly kinda "bracing" it, about half way up the flower; then useing a scalpel make a horizontal incision very carefully into the anthers making sure not to go to deep and cut the style. Then gently move the blade up the tip of the flower to remove the upper section of anther on that side and reveal the pistil. Then carefully cut/remove the rest of the upper portion of the cone.
Its not a perfect method as it leaves part of the anthers attached. It remains to be seen if this work or not but for me it was some progress.

[KarenO]

I'm no expert but I think there would still be pollen in the remains of the anther cone that could pollinate your bloom before you cross it
KO

[KarenO]

nice sharp closeup photos by the way

[Dane S]

Thank u Karen. I think u might be right about the pollen. A Lil wishful thinking on my part but I'm hoping that if I pollinate after emasculating and every day there after it won't be able to cross with anything else because the stigma will always be completely coated in the donor pollen.
Lol I guess I can wish in one hand and.....well u know the rest.
I'm actually hoping someone here has a better method.

[ChrisK]

I cross a lot of micro tomatoes with hair thin styles. I emasculate with a pair of stainless steel needle point tweezers. First remove the sepals and petals. I do this by using the tweezers to clip them off. Then when the anther cone is exposed hold it gently, close the tweezers and poke the tips gently into the cone a little ways, not all the way through, right near the bottom. Slowly let the tweezers open which pries the cone open around the style. Use the tweezers to carefully remove all the individual pieces. Sometimes the entire cone will "unwrap" around the style and can be pulled/pushed off while still impaled on the tweezer tips, in one motion.

Hope that was clear, I can try to post pix tomorrow if not!

[Dane S]

Thanks for that Chris described very well. That particular procedure works quite good. I use it a lot on various blossoms. However I haven't been successful using it on these blossoms. Attempting to insert the tweezers only breaks the pistil. I even went as far as to sharpen some tweezers. But to no avail. I was thinking about very small sowing needles to dismantle the blossom. What do u think? I'll give it a shot tomorrow maybe.
I have little experience with "tiny" or micro tomatoes. How do the blossoms compare with my pics. Are they really quite small?

[ChrisK]

Yeah the fused style is a pain and definitely takes practice, also helps if each tip goes into a separate anther. But, on difficult fused cones I will sometimes grab one anther from the cone at the bottom with the tweezers and peel it upwards, continue around the cone. Do that on a few and then the rest usually come off. It is sometimes an effort in Zen patience!

Yes, the micro tomatoes are more delicate than the normal cherries sometimes. Tiny little blossoms.

[Nematode]

Anyone want advice on emasculation should check in with my brothers first wife. She was pretty good at it.

[jmsieglaff]

Just tried this after watching a video. Was using Mexico midget as the male onto a dwarf cherry. I was able to emasculate the cherry by hand and then took anther cones off Mexico midget and slide them onto the exposed stigma. I did three I should know in a week or so if it worked. Maybe try giving that a shot?

[jmsieglaff]

Here is the foreign anthers slid onto the exposed pistil. Does anyone ever try this method?

[crmauch]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Here is the foreign anthers slid onto the exposed pistil. Does anyone ever try this method?

Never tried it. Looks possibly interesting, though I think I tend toward direct application of the pollen

[ChrisK]

Yes, direct pollination works better for me.

[jmsieglaff]

I want to try direct pollination for that reason, but I'll need something small and sharp or an electric toothbrush to harvest the pollen. In the meantime, I think 1 of 3 of my anthers over the pistil approach have taken.