I don't think there has been any real research into this. I suspect that the microwaving causes some chemical changes in the polysaccharides on the pollen surface, thus removing the self incompatibility at the pollination stage. More indepth than that, mixing with fresh pollen also seems to help, although this is purely anecdotal. I have yet to do any controlled experiments. Whatever mechanism is at work, it allows the pollen to germinate and pollinate an otherwise self-incompatible plant. Sadly, this does not work on all self incompatible species, although I have managed to get it to work on some Hippeastrum species. Another thing about pollination, especially pollination under the difficult criteria of bypassing self-incompatibility, has to do with environmental factors such as heat and humidity, as well as bulb health and age of maturity. What this means is keep trying and don't give up the first time. Modern microwaves run at much higher power than mine, which I suspect is from the 70s (and still works!). I would suggest using it at half-power if you have a newer model. Nhu On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 1:37 PM, Jan Jeddeloh <janjeddeloh@gmail.com> wrote: > Nhu, > You mention microwaving pollen for 15 seconds. I’ve never heard of such a > thing. Do tell me more. Like why and for what species does this work. > > I’d be concerned about cooking it. Or is that somehow the idea? > > Jan Jeddeloh > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/