HYB: The Toothpick Thing

Tom Tadfor Little wrote:

:  I thought I'd try Sharon's suggestion of using colored toothpicks to apply
:  pollen. I had trouble getting a significant amount of pollen to adhere to
:  the toothpick, though. I was tempted to moisten the toothpick in my mouth
:  before dipping it into the pollen...will saliva destroy pollen grains like
:  water does?

Not in the amount deposited on a toothpick -- and you want the pollen grains to
burst and start growing as soon as they are placed on the stigmatic lip anyway.
Just be sure to wipe it dry before storing it in the pollen container, if that
is your practice.  There are two time-tested tricks to getting a "take" on a
flower that's past peak:  1) crush the style arm of a fresh flower and smear the
juice over the stigmatic lip of the flower to be crossed; and 2) supplement the
moisture of the drying stigmatic lip with saliva.  

Tom, you must never have heard Gus lecture me about walking around with a
toothpick in my mouth -- as that was certainly unforgettable!  BTW, Gene Hunt
claimed that ingestion of pollen was not a problem because of its high protein
content -- and I suspect the reason iris are the only flower I don't seem to be
allergic to has something to do with this long-term practice.

: (For most of my hybridizing career, I used the anther itself as an
: applicator. But when I started working with tiny pumila anthers and plants
: with scarce pollen, I supplemented that with a brush. It would be nice to
: use something that doesn't involve worrying whether the brush is properly
: cleaned between crosses.)

The toothpick does the trick.  My problem with brushes was not the time required
to clean them between crosses, but having to wait for the alcohol to dry so it
didn't kill the next batch of pollen.

Sharon McAllister
73372.1745@compuserve.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index