Advice on how to pollinate this year

Nuclieye

Nuclieye

Last year I had a pain of a time getting a cross but did finally get a few pods.  Native wild Chiltepins here in Arizona are getting hard to find and the Bradshaw ones are now very rare in the wild.  Last year I crossed two Reapers with them by using a micro vacuum when the bloom was just opening on the Chiltepin in hopes of pulling the pollen off then dusting it with a fresh cut bloom from the Reaper.  It appears to have worked simply from the difference I'm seeing in the starts and tasting the seeds.  They are much hotter than natural Chiltepins.
 
So here's my question's...  The blooms on my F1's are only 4mm's in diameter and there are MANY on a plant that's only 7"s tall right now.  Blooms are very delicate, so how best to mark them after pollinating, and is there a better way to pollinate such tiny flowers for an F2 than what I did last year?  This photo is at 50X via a usb microscope.
 
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Full plant currently.  Reaper is just starting to bloom so will be pollinating within two weeks best guess.
 
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This is how small the blooms are.
 
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Go to your local supermarket and pick up a cheap $2-$3 little disposable kids electric toothbrush, do not put the brush head directly on the flower face, place the "back" of the toothbrush (when on and vibrating of course) and vibrate the branch that the flower is attached to, as well as right behind the flower itself. This action mimics what a Bee does in nature as most pollination with plants is actually done by the vibration of a Bee/s wings, as most of the time a Bee doesn't even touch the flower...don't worry about marking the ones that have been pollinated, as once they have been pollinated the flower will tell you by the obvious appearance of the white flower dress will start to wilt and separate. Every couple days just take that brush, and go around the whole plant and give all the flowers a "little shake" with the brush as this makes sure that all the flowers on the plant are fully pollenated...remember, there is no such thing as over pollinating...
 
Anthony
 
By bees, I am going to assume you mean honey bees, as they are the most common to visit flowers. Now that were on the same page, Bees absolutely do touch the flower. They borrow down into it to get to the nectar and in doing so get all covered with pollen. The statement I quoted above couldn't be farther from the truth.
 
Do me a favor "Captain Cap Com", if all you want to do is butt into a conversation and instead of trying to help the guy out that's having the problem in the first place (who posted), and instead you want to feed your ego by correcting someone else or trying to start a debate, save it for another thread (one that I'm not involved in, Thank you, as you sound like one of those guys with a whole lot of "books smarts" vs. real world growing experience...and by the way, if you want to join an Intelligent conversation, at least learn to spell ok?...the word burrow, is spelled "burrow"...not "borrow"...since my answer about bee's was at 3 in the morning, I wasn't totally awake and probably thinking about the video I watched a few minutes earlier of a hummingbird feeding...oh and by the way..."We Aren't" on the same page...I can get into the subject of how the vibration of a bee's wings cause vibration and makes the pollen become airborne (which was actually our subject...not how bee's extract nectar), as well as vibration, the wings also cause airflow which spreads the pollen to other flowers, I'll let you research and study that, after you're done visiting Dictionary.com...
 
Hmmm?  Welcome aboard BCE...  Sorry to have interrupted your early morning with my post and thanks for responding.  Please don't take offense that your response was completely off base in response to my actual question on how to CROSS pollinate my F2's with less trouble for such a tiny bloom.
 
How's your day going?
 
BlueCollarEats said:
Do me a favor "Captain Cap Com", if all you want to do is butt into a conversation and instead of trying to help the guy out that's having the problem in the first place (who posted), and instead you want to feed your ego by correcting someone else or trying to start a debate, save it for another thread (one that I'm not involved in, Thank you, as you sound like one of those guys with a whole lot of "books smarts" vs. real world growing experience...and by the way, if you want to join an Intelligent conversation, at least learn to spell ok?...the word burrow, is spelled "burrow"...not "borrow"...since my answer about bee's was at 3 in the morning, I wasn't totally awake and probably thinking about the video I watched a few minutes earlier of a hummingbird feeding...oh and by the way..."We Aren't" on the same page...I can get into the subject of how the vibration of a bee's wings cause vibration and makes the pollen become airborne (which was actually our subject...not how bee's extract nectar), as well as vibration, the wings also cause airflow which spreads the pollen to other flowers, I'll let you research and study that, after you're done visiting Dictionary.com...
Click to expand...
 
:rofl: Someone's a bit touchy and defensive. 
 
I have no problem with you Nuclieye ...just trying to lend a little bit of advice, maybe I misunderstood what/or how you were exactly trying to pollinate (it's all good), it was "Captain Capcom" that kind of rubbed me the wrong way...and yes D3monic, I guess I am a "bit touchy and defensive today" :)...I guess I should just grab some tissue out of my purse, and then ask the nearest person around me for a Hug! 
 
Anthony
Oregon Coast
 
BlueCollarEats said:
I have no problem with you Nuclieye ...just trying to lend a little bit of advice, maybe I misunderstood what/or how you were exactly trying to pollinate (it's all good), it was "Captain Capcom" that kind of rubbed me the wrong way...and yes D3monic, I guess I am a "bit touchy and defensive today" :)...I guess I should just grab some tissue out of my purse, and then ask the nearest person around me for a Hug! 
 
Anthony
Oregon Coast
Click to expand...
Sooo, lets assume you now have your big girl panties on and are over "it", and now fully understanding my original question of how to improve on my technique of cross pollinating such a tiny and delicate bloom do you have anything productive to add to the post?  I'm actually considering some rather drastic measures. 
 
OK...my big girl panties are on (they're kind of tight though), in a short synopsis, what was the original issue more defined??
 
Anthony ;)

My first question would be, "how did you pollinate them last year"??, as you are trying to figure out a better way correct??

Never mind about telling how you first pollinated as I read your original post!
 
Nuclieye, I honestly feel that the electric toothbrush method is your best bet, as I grow a lot of cherry/grape tomatoes and the pollination is much different than that of peppers because the pollen and pistil are enclosed inside the tomato flower, which makes it more difficult to pollinate, the intense vibration of an electric toothbrush touching the branch/stem/flower/etc., mimics an aggressive/hungry bee trying to feed. This action will dislodge the pollen from the male glands and coat the female pistil/ovaries and complete the pollination

OK  :rofl: ...I'll try XXL!
 
I've used the electric toothbrush method on about 4 dozen different varieties of cherry/grape tomatoes (including #3654 "Spoon Tomato" which is widely considered the smallest Tomato in the world), and have always been successful :surprised:
 
it can get very time consuming trying to hand pollinate hundreds of flowers. I do it at the start of the season when my plants are small and flowers are few, and give up later in the season when the plants are big and covered in flowers/pods.
 
I usually just use my finger. just rub a flower, get a load of pollen on the end of your finger and then go around touching pistils
 
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