My NOL antlers are not coming apart. They are what they call (clued)
I want to Pollinate & save the pollen on NOL. Can I take the antlers out & pollinate the same flower?
Pollination ? PLEASE HELP.
Also I just cut all the foliage off of my 2 month old plants for winter. Now I have read that it should not have been cut to winterize it until it reaches a certain age? What do I do now? try & grow her or winterize her? HELP!
Rhonda,
Depending on the genetics of the Brugs, some will have glued anthers while others will have free or separated anthers. That will be the norm for your NOL — glued anthers.
You can't pollinate the same flower from which you took the pollen nor can you pollinate any other NOL flower. Brugs, with one exception that I know of, need to be cross-pollinated. If you have only 1 flower, you can only take pollen from her. If you have pollen from another Brug, you can use it to pollinate NOL. You can collect the pollen from this flower and store it to use on other Brug flowers. You will need a small, clean container and a clean pair of tweezers. Wait until the pollen is mature, that is when the pollen on the anthers is very fluffy. Carefully use the tweezers to grab a few of the anthers and gently pull them off trying not to shake too much of the pollen off. Then do the same with the rest of the anthers. With separated anthers, you grab the filament that holds the anther to the flower one at a time. A slight tug will sever the filament. Place the anthers in the container and cap.
When you get back inside, uncap the container and place the uncapped container in a clean dry place until the pollin dries and falls off the anthers. You can remove the empty anthers or not. Cap the container,double bag it and place it in refrigerator if you plan to use the pollen soon or in the freezer if you plan to use it in the spring.
Realize that a developing seedpod takes a lot of energy from the mother plant. When the plant is growing actively, that's no problem unless a small plant is loaded down with seedpods. During winter when the plant is dormant or almost dormant, the seedpod will take what seems ages to develop and ripen, but that's asking too much of a 2 month old plant.
How you prepare your Brugs to overwinter depends on whether you plan to let them go dormant or to keep them growing. To go dormant, Brugs need steady temperatures of 45ºF or slightly less. At temperatures over that, Brugs will continue to grow but very very slowly. DGers who let them go dormant place their Brugs in a basement, a garage if it doesn't freeze, or the coolest dark place in the house. Others provide light, a window or artificial light and overwinter them somewhere in the house unless you have a greenhouse. You can choose to remove the leaves or not. The leaves usually fall off anyway due to shock. If they find conditions suitable, they will put out new leaves and continue to grow a bit. Otherwise, they will go dormant. The most important thing to remember when you over winter your Brugs is NOT to over water. Keep the soil on the dry side. When you do water, do so by the cup full. Brugs use very little water when dormant and just a bit more when semi-dormant. If you can spray the tops with an insecticide or use a systemic to get rid of potential infestations, it helps your Brugs survive winter. Be on the lookout for spidermites which seem to be the biggest problem in winter indoors.
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Thank you for your help. My NOL is older then 2 months. She was a plant when I got her. I want to use LSD to pollinate her. The pollen from LSD has been in the refrigerator for about a month. So should I remove the antlers/pollen from NOL & then use LSD to pollinate her?
You don't have to remove the anthers before pollinating her, but if the bloom you are going to pollinate is the one in the photo, it may be too late. I remember reading a post made by someone who does a lot of hybridizing (Liz?). You need to start trying to pollinate as the bloom opens and then try again. Apparently there is an optimum window for pollinating the stigma and that is as the bloom opens. The longer you wait after that, the lower the chances of success.
The stigma is behind the antlers. I moved the antlers & it is way back in there. I know what the stigma is & it is supposed to be longer then the antlers but in this case its not. I went ahead and removed the antlers & pollinated the stigma it was pretty far back there.
I don't know if I should of done it this way but those antlers did not want to open up. She just opened all the way up last night. I have her in the house because I wanted to see her bloom. I did try to pollinate last night but It probably went to the antlers because that's all I saw. Has this happened to you before?
No, but it took a while to get the technique down and then some more tries to get any successfully pollinated.