Re: HYB: Hybridizing Kit
- Subject: Re: HYB: Hybridizing Kit
- From: L* M*
- Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 08:37:12 -0500
My hybridizing kit consists of a small, shallow bowl (the ones that are
smaller than a salad bowl) or big pill minder box, tweezers/forceps, a
marking pen, & tags. I walk around staring at plants, trying to figure
out what crosses might give me something going in the general direction
of my goals (tougher plants), looking for pollen that seems viable. To
make crosses, I collect several anthers and either place them in the
bowl, or if I'm trying to gather pollen from a lot of things, label a
small scrap of paper with the pollen plant name, place it in the bottom
of one of the pill box cubicles and put the anther in on top.
The pill box thingy was new last year and is really handy - translucent
so I can almost make out the name of the pollen source, each compartment
has a hinged lid so I can snap it shut (helps keep pollen in the box
when I trip over my own feet), & the whole thing can be popped in the
freezer at the end of the pollination day. I got a big one that has
separate boxes for morning and evening, and I think has enough
compartments for two weeks (=28 boxes?).
I swipe whole anthers across stigmatic lips rather than trying to put on
a few grains. If I ever have a year where I think I have a lot of
viable pollen, I may be a bit more stingy with it, but for now, I'm
globbing on as much as I can get to stick to the lip. I have not been
cleaning my forceps between crosses - I should be so lucky as to get
cross contamination with the low rate of takes I get!
Labels are plastic coated wire 'twisties' and paper tags. I tried with
no success to find the store bought paper tags on strings last year
(closest I came was an empty bin at Wally World) & wound up using some
stiff filing cabinet folder paper cut in strips with a hole punched in
one end. I label the tags as I go, tag every mama I put pollen on, then
go back and enter crosses in my book.
One of our club members uses one of those cloth aprons with several
pockets across the front, & carries all his supplies with him as he
goes, including the notebook.
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
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