HYB: pollen, successes

ETIS show and spring sale was today - huge success in spite of major
storms moving through yesterday.

Tom & Grace Parkhill's garden and introductions were beautiful as always
(in spite of considerable storm damage) & it was fun to see what Tom is
working on now.  He also gave me a few anthers from some recent
Ghio/Keppel intros - they are pretty mushed up from all the rain and
then riding around in my notebook all afternoon, but there might be some
viable pollen there.

We talked a lot about success & failures in getting pods.  I mentioned
the temperature/humidity that Sharon M recommended - less than 85oF,
greater than 30% humidity.  Tom says that while he hasn't taken notes,
his impression has been that he has better success when temperatures are
quite a bit lower than that and when humidity is greater than 80%.
That translates to early morning and after sundown, or cloudy days.

We also talked about pollen - Tom says that he has better success with
pollen that is from flowers that are open for the second day.  I've been
looking a lot closer at pollen this year (thanks to my 6 X magnifying
reading glasses <g>), and had already noticed that by the second day, if
it isn't fluffy and ready to go, the anther has mushed up or curled
over.  So I was already using day old pollen this year.

Too early to tell if all the increased level of knowledge and eyesight
has helped improve the number of successful pods on the TBs.

I hope these tidbits are helpful to other beginners.  I am gradually
learning enough to be able to ask the right questions.

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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