Pollen's collecting

[wijaya]

Hi,
I will like to share on how I collected and stored pollen, hope this will be useful.

1. male flower, how to tell if they are ready to be taken/'milked':
- by sight - watch carefully as many insect will get around the ready
pollens (ripe), also the 'petal of the flower bud will fall back'
- by smell - they dispersed distinctive smell
- by touch - when you touch the tip, the yellow powdery pollens will stuck
on your finger

2. not all the flower buds ripen at the same time, so just take the ripe one.

then I let them air dry in the tray, easier to collect the pollen this way,
let it stand for about half day.

3. Then using a tweezer try to rubbed slowly and the pollen will fall off, only
this powdery pollen stored.


4. after that just put the pollens in a 'wax paper' then they are ready to be
stored in the fridge, they will stay fresh up to 6 months time.


5. this is the tray, the tweezer and ready to stored pollen pack, remember
to put the name and date of collection.


Ed

[NepNut]

Really good of you for taking the effort to include pic illustration, thanks for sharing the tips.

1 question, when you said to store the pollen in the fridge, you meant the lower compartment of the fridge, not the freezer, right?? Thanks again.

[wijaya]

@cpnut: you 're welcome, always nice to be able to share. Yes not the freezer but the lower compartment.

Ed

[kentosaurs]

Hi Wijaya

Nice thread you made here...........When you say you dry off the petals what do you mean??? Till they turb brown??????????????/

Ken

[wijaya]

No Ken, the pollen when first cut from the flower will surely got some moisture on it, when wet the pollens are not easy to fall off, so in my case in the picture, I cut the buds in the morning and later at the evening I can rubbed the pollen off easily.

If they turned brown then it is ready to be throw away.

Ed

[kentosaurs]

Hi wijaya

Okays thanks

Ken

[David]

Thanks wijaya. I'll archive this. I too never really knew the proper way to collect the pollen from Neps.

One question... After it is stored in the fridge, when I want to post it to someone, how long can the pollen last outside the fridge when in transaction in the parcel? Just want to find out in case in the future I need to mail pollen out. Also if I receive pollenm from mail, would it be ok for me to store them again in the fridge if I do not have a right planty flowering at that time?

[TS]

Woah David, you asked so many questions urh?
Hi Edy, very useful instruction with pictures!!! Me too don't really know the proper way to collect pollen, thanks for the tips

[shawnintland]

One more person saying thanks for making the effort to put this thread together! We are slowly building a good little reference library of techniques for CP's!

[kentosaurs]

Hi Shawn

Well this is place is definitly full of info for CPs...................Just a wild idea hehehehe

A pet pitcher book hahahaha....

Ken