Re: Re: RE: HYB: Freezing Pollen
- Subject: Re: [iris] Re: RE: HYB: Freezing Pollen
- From: "Colleen Modra" c*@impressiveirises.com.au
- Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 06:42:25 +0930
- List-archive: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris/> (Web Archive)
Milk Powder is a pretty good desiccant also
Colleen Modra
Adelaide Hills AUST
zone 8/9
colleen@impressiveirises.com.au
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dana Brown" <danabrown@peoplepc.com>
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 11:42 AM
Subject: RE: [iris] Re: RE: HYB: Freezing Pollen
> Char,
> Dessicant is something that absorbs moisture, rice in a salt shaker
> is an old one. We went to our pharmacy and asked them to save us some.
> Every large container of meds comes with at least one. They are usually
> little canisters with the dessicant inside. The pharmacy cheerfully saved
> me a large baggie of them.
> Hope this helps!!
>
> Dana
>
>
> Dana Brown
> AIS Region 17 RVP
> Director ASI, TBIS
> AIS, ASI, MIS, RIS, SPIS, TBIS
> Malevil Iris Gardens
> www.malevil-iris.com <http://www.malevil-iris.com>
> Lubbock, TX
> Zone 7 USDA, Zone 10 Sunset
> danabrown@peoplepc.com <d*@peoplepc.com>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-iris@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf Of Char
> Holte
> Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 7:18 PM
> To: iris@hort.net
> Subject: RE: [iris] Re: RE: HYB: Freezing Pollen
>
> Hi,
> OK you guys, explain the word 'desiccant'.
> Thanks, Char New Berlin WI
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-iris@hort.net
> [o*@hort.net] On Behalf Of thomas
> silvers
> Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 2:55 PM
> To: iris-talk
> Subject: [iris] Re: RE: HYB: Freezing Pollen
>
>
> Like Colleen, I've refrigerated pollen with a
> dessicant and used it several months later with
> good
> results. If I'm planning on using it a year later,
> I'd
> probably freeze it. Here is the method I use to
> store
> all kinds of pollen, (irises, daylilies, roses,
> etc.).
>
>
> I brush the pollen onto a mirror and then scrape
> it
> into empty gelatin capsules (actually I've been
> using
> cellulose capsules lately that I found at a health
> food store for vegetarians to repackage their
> pills).
> I'm sure I must look like a drug addict (with my
> mirror full of pollen and my razor blade, but it
> works
> really well. I got a plastic tub of silica gel
> (dessicant) from the craft store (it's intended
> for
> drying flowers in). I have little plastic
> screw-top
> tubes/vials that I store each capsule in. So, I
> put a
> little scoop of dessicant in the tube followed by
> a
> loose wad of cotton. Then the capsule sits on top
> of
> that, and screw on the top. Voila! I started using
> the
> cotton between the dessicant and the capsule,
> because
> I had formerly used Calcium chloride as a
> dessicant,
> which gets wet as it absorbs moisture. Then the
> gelatin would get soggy -- not good. So, when I'm
> ready to use a sample of pollen, I pull out a vial
> and
> warm it in my hands, before unscrewing the top
> (since
> any moisture is supposed to be detrimental). Then
> I
> open the capsule and dump out a little pollen and
> it's
> ready to use. The remaining pollen can be put back
> to
> storage for later use. This method has worked well
> enough for me, that I get successful crosses with
> at
> least one-year-old pollen. I haven't had a need to
> try
> out older pollen.
>
> This storage of pollen allows for crosses that
> would
> never have been possible otherwise. For example,
> if I
> hadn't stored pollen from some Iris suaveolens
> clones,
> I would have never been able to get the hybrids of
> these with pallida and variegata. Both of the
> latter
> species bloom so much later than suaveolens, that
> I
> never would have had them in bloom when I had
> pollen
> available. Similarly, very early and very late TB
> irises (that didn't overlap in bloomtime) could
> still
> be hybridized, by using stored pollen.
>
> And it's actually pretty simple.
> Hope it works for you too. Tom
>
>
>
>
>
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