I put this page together years back on storing pollen: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/info/Pollen.html -- Jim On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 12:33 PM, Michael Mace <michaelcmace@gmail.com> wrote: > I could use some advice on storing pollen. > > The bulbs that I hybridize bloom over a period of several months, most of > them from February to early May. If I want to make the widest range of > crosses, I need to store pollen from the early ones to use on the later > ones. The way I've been doing that is to put the anthers in plastic film > canisters (the kind that photographic film used to come in). The canisters > go in a soft-sided food cooler, which is stored in a deep freeze in the > garage. > > During bloom season I take that cooler out of the freezer for an hour or > more every time I pollinate. That system worked well for me in the past, > but > the more plants I get, the more often I take the cooler out of the freezer. > This year it was probably out at least five times a week, and I noticed > that > the stored pollen started to look bad. It was clumpy instead of powdery, > and > flowers pollinated with it often didn't set seeds. My rate of success on > crosses dropped by about 50% this year. > > I think what's happening is that the anthers are thawing and then > refreezing > over and over, and that's doing something to the pollen. Do you think > that's > likely, and if so, what can I do about it? I can think of a few options: > > --Don't freeze the anthers during the growing season. Store the film > canisters open in a cool day spot and hope the pollen remains viable. How > long is it likely to last when stored this way? > > --Remove the pollen from the anthers and freeze only the pollen. Will the > pollen alone tolerate thawing and freezing better than pollen on anthers? > > --Store the anthers in a refrigerator instead of a freezer. Maybe if they > don't actually freeze they won't deteriorate so quickly. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > > Mike > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > -- James Shields jshields46074@gmail.com P.O. Box 92 Westfield, IN 46074 U.S.A.