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Sioux Falls SD

Need other opinions, Can male pollination be harvested and be used a week or two later? or a year later?

1/20/2010 10:39:06 PM

Sequim, WA

At one time Lincoln Mettler was harvesting pollen and saving it in gelatin capsules for later use. I believe he was storing it frozen, although I can't recall if it was with liquid nitrogen, or just the kitchen freezer. He was using the stored pollen successfully.

1/20/2010 11:29:29 PM

British Columbia, Canada

Yes, you can store it.
So if you've got a seed like the 1068 Wallace, collect every flower the plant produces and freeze it.
Later on other growers will pay you $50 to get some pollen, Ha!

1/21/2010 12:07:41 AM

Ohio

besides what Tiller is talking about I haven't heard of anyone else have success in freezing pollen, dont know why it hasnt been tried more,maybe because the success rate is low. I think Eddy the Iceman Or maybe it was Russ Landry tried it for a couple years and didnt have success with it. I think if there was a big success rate with freezing pollen you would probably see less cloning for pollen.IMO

I have tried freezing it before just for couple weeks in the same season and didnt have any luck at all with it.but then again I might have been storing it wrong also.

Brooks

1/21/2010 6:26:03 AM

Eastern Washington State

EG I'm a research scientist so my knee-jerk response is to say 'do the experiment'. It seems reasonable to assume that male flowers would 'keep' in water for several days at refrigerator temperatures.

Long-term storage of pollen is trickier and species-specific. Brooks is right, if you haven't heard of it that probably is because it's difficult. It would have to be done at liquid nitrogen temperatures or at least -70 C (laboratory equipment).

1/21/2010 11:13:31 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Same here Brooks, I tried freezing it and using later with no success.

1/21/2010 11:40:21 AM

Cortona Toscana Italy

the only new about freezing pollen and using it later with succes is in daylilyes breeding! the way of stor ethis is to let it dry before to freze it! so collect antere with pollen let it dry in shade and after this use gelatine capsule to store it
if not let it dry the ice cristals broke the cells!

1/21/2010 12:40:15 PM

Northern Cambria, Pa.

Marv Meisner also tried it and had no success

1/21/2010 12:43:43 PM

Sioux Falls SD

Thanks guys,
This info most like well save me a lot of time.

1/21/2010 6:54:58 PM

Las Cruces NM

Pollin from any plant can be stored for later use so the real questions are 1) for how long can it be stored and still remain viable? and 2) are there ways of extending it's shelf life? Polin should be good for a few days anyways. Anything more I could say would just be reiterating BrianB comments (except to say that freezing could possible terminate all viability). Experiment -- its fun!

1/21/2010 8:02:26 PM

Whidbey Island

Anyone with a patch of field pumpkins might want to try it and not waste valuable real estate or AG pollen on an experiment. What is learned from field pumpkins should be easily transferred over to AGs. If I had enough space, I'd try it myself.

1/24/2010 10:43:22 PM