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Gays Mills, Wisconsin

Does anyone have or has plans to create a viable storage system for pollen.

Here's the deal......Let's say in 2009 we grow a couple of awesome 1700+ pounders. We want the pollen from the plant/s if possible for 2010, or even a clone/s. The following year the pollen is available for crosses.
This would require the grower/s to anticipate the greatness of their plants in order to plan to store it's genetics for upcoming year/s.

Questions:
Can pollen be frozen and still be viable?
Will a clone produce male flowers in June/July the following year?

If pollen can only be viable if frozen in liquid nitrogen do we have a place to go to? thus-

Would it behoove us as a GP Community to have the opportunity to call upon a service to store the genetics (either as a clone or pollen)?

The resulting goal would be where a clone of the 1700+ pounder is pollinated by the other 1700+ pounder the following year, even though they were originally grown in different places the previous year.

John

2/14/2009 2:31:27 PM

Western NY

I went 0 for 10 on pollinations in 2006 with frozen pollen from the plant that grew my 1407 the year before. It was saved in the freezer in what I consider best practices (desiccant pack, small airtight vial, pollen collected in time).

Liquid nitrogen would be the way to go if that's what you want to do. When I looked into it years ago, I had heard Lincoln Mettler had tried liquid N with questionable success. From what I heard, the pollination rate was less than 50%, and there were problems with the resulting seeds.

What you're looking for would be a central cloning operation, where we would have vines shipped to someone who would keep them growing through the winter. There are a few guys on here experienced with keeping them going who can chime in, but yes, males would be available almost immediately the following year.

Treated well, a clone plant can produce a 1000 pound pumpkin. One I know of already has.

2/14/2009 3:59:21 PM

Wallingford,CT

I've tried flash frozen pollen with liquid nitrogen followed by storage at -80C without success. In spite of that I plan to try again this year.

2/14/2009 5:01:31 PM

That State Up North

I am building greenhouse infrastructure and may be able to hold clones over the winter for a central clone hub. I have been working on doing that for some time and believe it would be a great benefit to growers. I know I have tried talking others into doing this in years past when I have been short on time and resources. In 2009 I will have the resources to do it and will be pursuing clone projects again.

I would like more discussion on grafting clones on new rootstock. Anyone with observations on specific seeds or seed lines that have produced great stumps and root systems would be great to have information on for this project. Also those with experience grafting would be valuable to the project.

I have had very marginal success freezing pollen, but with liquid nitrogen it should be possible. I had one successful fruit set from frozen pollen, but the fruit had poor seed count and the few poorly developed seeds that I puled from it were not viable.


Nic Welty

2/14/2009 7:31:02 PM