hybrid Storing pollen for ease of making crosses?

Sarg3

Sarg3

Have any of you tried to store pepper pollen? I have just begun reading up on it and while there isn't much pollen to be had from each flower, the amount of pollen a flower needs to pollinate itself is small, and most gioes to waste.
 
What got me wondering is how much easier this would be for making crosses. I have a plant here I have no interest in keeping peppers from, but I wish to make a few crosses with, using it as the father. I was thinking each time it flowers I could shake pollen into a small container, like a medicine bottle, and store it. Then when I want to make a cross, simply dip my brush or q-tip into it and paint it on the plants I wish to be the mothers.
 
Thoughts?

 
 
Well, well, soon we will swap no more seeds, but pollen! Will have pollen bank! Now I should work to create a refrigerating bubble envelope, and take the jackpot! ;)
 
cycadjungle said:
I have kept a pollen bank with about 40 species pollen for at least 20 years. I have used pollen that was 11 years old and it still produced good seeds, but this is with cycads. The storing would be exactly the same, just the collection would be different. Here is an article I wrote about 15 years ago.
http://cycadjungle.8m.com/cycadjungle/Collection%20and%20Storage%20of%20Cycad%20Pollen.html
Click to expand...
Excellent article, Sir!!!
 
I`ve done a similar thing with species of Orchids, including sending the pollen across the USA via overnight mail and a friend an I have been talking about doing this with rare wild species pollen this year. 
 
cycadjungle said:
I have kept a pollen bank with about 40 species pollen for at least 20 years. I have used pollen that was 11 years old and it still produced good seeds, but this is with cycads. The storing would be exactly the same, just the collection would be different. Here is an article I wrote about 15 years ago.
http://cycadjungle.8m.com/cycadjungle/Collection%20and%20Storage%20of%20Cycad%20Pollen.html
Click to expand...
Thank you for the link.  I never even thought about fridge first before freezing, or doing multiple separate samplesto avoid destroying the whole supply.  Thinking of that, I wonder how well pill gelcaps would work for storing individual supplies of pollen?  Buy cheap pills, empty them out, place pollen in gelcaps, place in a container and freeze.
 
Well, it looks this is an old story already, no more jackpot for me...
 
Now seriously, this make me think about keeping pollen from let's say flowers of a F2 hybrid, see how each resulting pods look/taste/smell, and pollinate next year the F3 with the pollen from a specific flower. I mean, maybe this will help to keep the hybrid on a specific path. Would that be an improve?
 
Nigel, thank you very much for the complement. It means even more coming from you.BTW still loving your reviews! I need to go back and start up my Monday night taste tests.
On the gelcap, it is important to have airflow between pollen and the desiccant to lower the moisture content in pollen, especially before you freeze it, this the paper packets. I have seen smaller store bought packets, bit making my own works good enough for me. With pollen, you don't need a lot of storage space. I store way to much pollen anyway. I have been told that a match head sized pile pollen is about 50,000 pollen grains, and reach grain can make a seed. That would mean that a small pile that size could be mixed with water and be used to pollinate 250 good sized cycad cones. An interesting experiment would be to mix the pollen in water and spray the flowers. That might damage the stigmas, but maybe not. Just in case this helps at all on that idea, again, this is for cycads, but I have found out the best tricks by studying what other plant people do. Tom
http://cycadjungle.8m.com/cycadjungle/Hand-Pollination%20of%20Cycads.html

Oh yea, Nigel, I made a plastic double chamber, round holding devise about 3 inches in diameter where the vital in placed in the middle with a screw threaded cap. The surrounding area is filled with dry ice. I sent pollen to south Africa regular air mail and the pollen made good seeds. I used it several times before someone kept it and never sent it back.
 
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