Thank you for the reminder Uli. I have heard of this cement method as well. I think that the high pH of the cement would change chemical properties of both the pollen and stigma. In the orchid world, saliva is also used with some success. In this case, saliva contains amylases that would break down starches (polysaccharides that we talked about prior). I tried with but only once or twice and cannot speak to success in neither orchids nor bulbs. Another method, which is the most tricky is to do a bait and switch. For example, you want to set seeds on species A, but it's self incompatible. What you do is take species A and pollinate species B. When the pollen tube has grown enough on the stigma of species B, you cut it off, and attach it onto the cut stigma of species A. I have only heard of this method but have never tried it. All of these methods are "pre-zygotic" barriers = before the plant sperms and eggs fuse. There are some plants with post-zygotic barriers and that's several levels above what we can do without genetic modification of the plant. We get into the GMO territory that tend to stir many people. Robin, I think there are four methods that we have discussed so far. Just try all of them and tell us if you have success with any of them. Nhu On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 1:57 PM, Johannes Ulrich Urban < johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de> wrote: > Mix the desired fresh pollen with ordinary cement powder. Apparentliy the > cement stimulates the stigma to accept pollen which it normally would not. > Don't ask me how it works..... changes in pH? >