RE: HYB: Freezing Pollen

All I do to freeze pollen is collect it on generic Qtips, (make sure it's
dry), put them in a regular envelope (unsealed) with the name or donor and
date collected, put the envelope in a ziplock bag with at least one dessicant
pouch (I seem to get them in all kinds of purchased products these days) and
store in my frost-free freezer.

I suspect viabilty will degrade over time.  Late bloomers like Vienna Waltz
have been frozen for next year, so I will get some idea of the limits of my
low-tech method.  I have two zip lock bags now, oncers alphabetically in one,
with a cover sheet of contents, and seedling pollen numerically, also with a
cover sheet.  This fall I will add a third bag of rebloomer pollen.  Actually,
I've already started the third bag, with pollen from my Sugar Blues X Banana
Cream repeater.

BTW, I had lots of balloon pods this year, but no bee pods.  And no, I didn't
hit every bloom in the yard.

Making seeds is a lot easier than making sprouts.  I'm experimenting with that
now.

Mary Lou, near Indianapolis, Z5 - the heat is awful, but the mosquitoes are
worse!

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