Astrophytum fun

[C And D]

More Frozen Pollen discussions, yea!

I use small vials or prescription drug bottles

I don't dry it or do any preparation of the pollen.

I just cut off the tops of the anthers and get a small pile of pollen to store. (try to avoid other pieces of the flower that will muck the pollen up)
I cut off a piece of a small wooden skewer with the pointy end, and drop it in the bottle.
Label, then just put it in the freezer until needed.
I use the skewer to pollinate the future flowers of the different clone.

My pollen seems to last years using this technique, I just pollinated my second clone of my Yavia using pollen from 2012 and got seeds.

I've also been able to pollinate plants using dead flowers pollen, the pollen last for days or weeks sometimes.
But most cacti flowers go mush after then are done, which seems to kill off the pollen pretty quickly.

[BarryRice]

Gaaaahhhh!!!!!!

I just ran another series of tests. No luck with pollen even only 5 days old!!!!!!

Meanwhile, my regular pollination work is just fine.....

[BarryRice]

Hey Craig,

How about this....the only thing I can think of that might be an important variable is an aspect of my collection method. I collect pollen with my needle-tip dissection tweezers. I grab bundles of anthers (by the filaments), rip them out of the flower, and store those en masse. (When I pollinate plants, I just smush those bundles onto the receptive stigmatic lobes--this works great.)

I'm wondering if the fact that I store the pollen on the anthers is causing the problem. Is it possible the pollen goes bad, if allowed to stay in contact with the anthers while in storage??????

B

[One Windowsill]

Pollen is usually very sensitive to moisture, the hard shell bursting open when wet. If you have hayfever you will notice the consequences of this as the allergenic contents of pollen spill out into your nose and eyes when the pollen hits the moisture. Anthers are usually quite moist.

[C And D]

Barry, I think we have just busted this dilemma wide open....

I use tweezers and pull off the pollen (with anthers attached) when I'm doing my usual flower to flower pollination

But for Frozen Storage, I cut the pollen off at the top of the anthers
And try to NOT include any other flower parts, which include the anthers which will muck up the mix.

I want to buy some new scissors that work better than the ones I use..

[BarryRice]

Ok.....so you're saying I should get the pollen OFF the anthers, and store just the pollen?

I'm not sure how to get the pollen off the anthers--shake or smear it off?

[C And D]

Tiny Scissors....

Snip off the pollen grains at the very top of the anthers.

a tiny bit of anther maybe OK, but the less the better.

[cactidan]

I made some echinopsis crosses with fridge stored pollen. Was about 12 days between the flowers, that was successful. Maybe being frozen killed the pollen.

[BarryRice]

I've tried refrigeration and freezing both.

Right now I'm just waiting for the next plant to flower--I've got freshly collected pollen for another batch of tests.

[iann]

Cotton buds Or snip off the intact tip of the anther. Getting the pollen off onto something helps to ensure that the anther is mature. The flower opening doesn't necessarily mean the pollen is ready to be released, although for most cacti it will be.

Cold storage doesn't seem necessary, but avoid water.

[Vito Corleone]

Hello guys
What's the variety of this Astrias, someone says that is Ornatum or Capricorne Astrophytum but it's really not.
The spines of this cacctus is really different from Ornatum or Capricorne.

[Texas Trichocereus]

Man o man great looking cactus!
If I wasn't a newcomer to the site I'd say send those open pollinated mystery seeds my way.

[Vito Corleone]

Man o man great looking cactus!
If I wasn't a newcomer to the site I'd say send those open pollinated mystery seeds my way.

Man contact me in WhatsApp for seed +989123593153

[DaveW]

The other problem with pollination if the plant is not self fertile is where your two plants actually came from? They may have been clonally propagated using offsets, particularly in the case of grafted plants these days. The "Red Lollypop" Gymnocalycium's being an extreme example, but many of the cryptocarpic Mammilaria's where the seed is hard to extricate from the plants and are distributed on grafts are often the same clone, therefore obviously you will require two unrelated clones to cross pollinate. Also many other newly introduced species that are mass propagated by grafting initially may only be from a few seed raised clones.

A few people do distribute these grafts as "Clone A" or "Clone B" when originally raised from seed, but this is the exception rather than the rule. However if you are having trouble pollinating your two plants of the same species it is a possibility to bear in mind and therefore try and obtain a third one of a different clone.

This link was for bromeliads but may be of interest:-

http://fcbs.org/articles/interpreting.htm