As I'm leaning more into crossing peppers, Im wondering on the viability of harvesting pollen from plants and storing it for crosses later on. How long is pollen viable for? My thought is with a stocked pollen library over time, you could create multiple crosses on the same plant. Is this something possible? Anyone have any experience with long-term storage of pollen?
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breeding Questions on starting a Pollen Library.
- Thread starter Rendition
- Start date
Bou
Extreme Member
Have a look at the video in the link below:
https://thehotpepper.com/threads/so...ees-and-a-few-f1-and-f1bc1.73267/post-1671069
You mean like this?
Drying harvested pollen in silica chamber
Frozen storage
The most important thing is drying it properly before any freezing. I also recommend splitting it into very small batches as you don't need much for each crossing attempt and it is best to only defrost it when needed, don't refreeze.
Personally, the oldest I've successfully used for making a cross is 4 months after freezing. I've not actually resorted to the frozen pollen stores that often. I'm sure with careful processing it will last much longer.
Regardless, fresh is always best and will have a much higher hit rate. I use fresh 95%+ of the time.
Drying harvested pollen in silica chamber
Frozen storage
The most important thing is drying it properly before any freezing. I also recommend splitting it into very small batches as you don't need much for each crossing attempt and it is best to only defrost it when needed, don't refreeze.
Personally, the oldest I've successfully used for making a cross is 4 months after freezing. I've not actually resorted to the frozen pollen stores that often. I'm sure with careful processing it will last much longer.
Regardless, fresh is always best and will have a much higher hit rate. I use fresh 95%+ of the time.