I’m looking to cross 2 of my plants but I can’t seem to get any pollen out of the flowers this season to transfer. I’ve even tried crushing the anthers to get it to release pollen, but it always seems barren of pollen. Are their any tricks or ideal times that I should observe when attempting this?
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harvesting Harvesting pollen for hybridization
- Thread starter Jeffcontonio
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I have no experience in this area but a quick google search, pepper flowers no pollen, may help?
Good luck!
Good luck!
Jeffcontonio said:
1) how do you know for sure that they're barren? How close are you inspecting?
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2) Have you observed a time from the opening of the flower, until the time that it drops its "skirt"?
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3) Are you getting any pods at all right now from the plant that you wish to harvest pollen from?
I’m only finding flowers that resemble A and B. I’ve searched them over and have yet to find anything substantial. I’ve tried to shake a number of flowers onto a glass lens and nothing ever comes off. If I look under magnification I can see a tiny bit, but to the naked eye it’s so insignificant it’s virtually invisible.solid7 said:
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It has to be producing some pollen, just not an abundance. I am getting pods from it and I was able to successfully bag an unopened flower till it self pollenated and formed a pod.solid7 said:
But I’m just not able to shake anything out. I can barely see anything under magnification, and nothing without magnification.
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Jeffcontonio said:
That's kind of what I was trying to get out of you.
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You shouldn't expect every flower - especially at this time of year, with these temps - to look like they've been rolled in saffron. Pollen count for plants like peppers and tomatoes, can actually be quite low, and still very easily produce the desired result.
So how should I go about transferring pollen from one plant to the other if I can’t see anything? Are there any tricks of the trade? Or should I just wait till later in the season?
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CaneDog
Extreme Member
I'm going through the same phase right now and still have a few crosses I want to pollinate. Flower set is hit and miss and the anthers aren't opening as fully or producing nearly as much pollen on most species as I'd like. My only peppers producing pollen heavily are wild varieties. Pollen production, viability, and anther dehiscence all all effected adversely by temperatures outside optimal ranges. When this is happening with the male parts, the female parts are likely not developing properly as well, which makes things tougher. Plus the female parts can be damaged (permanently) earlier in flower development than the male parts, so the adverse effects of earlier excessive heat can last a bit even once pollen shows up well again.
I'm not aware of much/anything that can be done other than maybe relocating plants into cooler areas of shade, etc. I've done that with some rocotos and another thing I'm doing is pollinating by removing a flower from the father in the late morning (trying to catch the anthers a couple/few hours after they split) and then rubbing the anther across the stigma right along the line of anther dehiscence, where I assume the most pollen will be. Often I'll transfer it using small soft-bristled paint brushes, but with production so bad I'm opting for a more direct approach. I'm also avoiding bagging flowers as much as possible (with small bags anyway) as that seems to also cause more failures during hotter weather.
That's about all I've got - not a lot. Hopefully the things start cooperating soon as it would be nice to see some crosses set with enough time to ripen fully outdoors.
Good luck!
I'm not aware of much/anything that can be done other than maybe relocating plants into cooler areas of shade, etc. I've done that with some rocotos and another thing I'm doing is pollinating by removing a flower from the father in the late morning (trying to catch the anthers a couple/few hours after they split) and then rubbing the anther across the stigma right along the line of anther dehiscence, where I assume the most pollen will be. Often I'll transfer it using small soft-bristled paint brushes, but with production so bad I'm opting for a more direct approach. I'm also avoiding bagging flowers as much as possible (with small bags anyway) as that seems to also cause more failures during hotter weather.
That's about all I've got - not a lot. Hopefully the things start cooperating soon as it would be nice to see some crosses set with enough time to ripen fully outdoors.
Good luck!
CaneDog, I trust your opinions and experiences. But I've never actually checked for pollen count. And if I have pods setting, I will always assume that there's some sufficient amount of pollen, even if I can't see it. Granted, fertility is lower, but pods is pods. I've had success getting pollination from manual transfer, even when the anthers look barren.
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I know that mine doesn't seem like the most assured advice. But I'd still encourage OP to give it a go. Might be surprised...
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I know that mine doesn't seem like the most assured advice. But I'd still encourage OP to give it a go. Might be surprised...
CaneDog
Extreme Member
solid7 said:
Yeah Solid, I agree with you. I keep making the attempts, just my %'s are notably lower right now and I try some different tactics. What I've read on the effects of heat aren't absolute, at least within a reasonable temp range, but indicate progressively less pollen is produced/distributed and that it contains a lower ratio of viable to nonviable grains.
I'd expect the risk of unintended pollination to be increased in such periods as pollinators carry pollen from nearby compatible varieties better able to produce viable pollen at the time/temps to receptive flowers not producing much of their own. This effect could even creep into intentional crosses if the male flowers aren't protected from pollinators prior to pollen extraction.
Something studies have suggested about the impact of heat on successful pod set is how long before opening of the flower the damage of high heat can be done. In this study - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1046/j.0016-8025.2001.00807.x they exposed bell peppers to excessive heat for various durations at various phases of bud/flower development and found:
"Flower buds [exposed to high temps 14-17 days prior to opening] ... experienced a decrease in fruit set from an average of 57% with 6 h of high temperature exposure to 14% with 120 h of exposure."
So your talking about a heat wave 2+ weeks in the past having a very significant effect on later pod set. Prior to reading the study, I hadn't realized that high-heat exposure could have such a lasting detrimental effect.
Just things to consider when devising strategies and setting expectations.
