Re: Requesting Info

Hello Vicky,
 
i first pick the pollen when it is absolutely dry. Like a wonderful dry sunny summer day...
If the air is saturated with water, forget it.
 
Then i leave the stamen in the house to dry out completely, so i don't deep-freeze wet stuff.
 
Then i place one stamen per little zip plastic bag. (they are the smallest i found, 1" x 2", in a shop that sells all the things for shop-keepers.)
 
Then i place all the bags with the same pollen in a little paper bag (from the same shop-keeper shop) on which i write the name of the pollen.
 
Then i place the bags in the deep freezer, by alphabetical order, please, if you want to save time in the spring.
 
When pollinating, I apply the pollen with a very small painter's spatula, there is no waste: with one TB stamen i usually can pollinate 3 TBs or 6 SDBs, and with a SDB stamen, 1 or 2 TBs, or 3 SDBs.
 
I think i had very unsuccesful crosses with frozen pollen this year because i deep-froze bad pollen to start with: the humidity is very high here with the condensation coming from the huge river nearby. Some were good, and i think these were picked on the right day, and at the right time!
An other reason is that maybe the deepfreezer drawer stayed opened too long when i was looking for the right bags, that's why i really advise you to put them in alphabetical order!
 
Hope this help!
 
Loïc
 
----- Original Message -----
From: j*@comcast.net
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 3:17 AM
Subject: [iris-photos] Requesting Info

I would like to save pollen from some of our TB's for use in spring 2009. Would greatly appreciate methods for saving pollen that have proven successful.
Thanks in advance,
Vicki

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