I believe it was someone from Washington State.
Anyways, it was about pollinating your blooms before the bees do it for you so you know the cross.
This person mentioned something about splitting open a closed bud (with a razor maybe?), pollinating it and then taping it back together and tagging it.
Anyways, I have lost the details about how to do that and also have questions, like will it still bloom once you tape it?
Has anyone done this before? If so, could you give me the step by step details? I want to cross one of my Creamsickle Buds with some pollen that was sent to me in the mail.
Karrie
SOMEONE GAVE ME INFORMATION ONCE
I talked about something similar Karrie with my Arborea buds. I was hoping they wouldn't self pollinate. Someone else might have also.
Anyway the way I did it was a tore open the bud carefully in the center and stuck in my forceps to remove the anthers so they could not self pollinate. You can tape it with a piece of masking tape. Then I waited till the bloom was mature and I went back and pollinated it.
To close the bloom back up, I saw the best thing on here I think it was. Someone used a plastic tag and put it around the bottom of the skirt and it kept it closed. It was so clever.
Be careful you do not jump the gun or the stigma won't be mature enough to take the pollen. I always wait till it is just about to open, I then gently pull the skirt open just enough to stick my paintbrush up there. There is no need to cut open the bloom this way. Then wrap the plastic tag around the skirt to protect the stigma from outside pollinators.
hmmmm - so should I wait for the little tendrils to start sticking out before doing it?
Thanks Kin, I checked it out and saved it to my favorites. For anyone else wanting that information, here is the link:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/362576/
The very first pic on that thread was a little fuzzy for me, but I will do some research to figure that one out - otherwise it is all very good info.
Ssuie gives great directions.
So sorry Karrie, I meant to take a picture of the time I pollinate for you, yesterday. I do it just before a bloom is about to open. I gently unstick the closed skirt ends and stick a child's paintbrush up there. I also remove the anthers first.
This one is perfect to pollinate.
Ok - let me get this straight. You remove the anthers from the brug you are going to pollinate, then take the pollen from a different brug on a child's paintbrush and stick it in the flower that you just removed the anthers from? And then you take one of those tags to close the skirt back up??? So the bud never actually gets to full bloom? What is the purpose of taking out the anthers?
I thought once you had pollinated it, it couldn't be pollinated again by an outside pollinator because it was already pregnant? (I know that sounds crazy, doesn't it!)
I know I am terrible at taking directions - I'm one of those hands-on learners but have noone here in Spokane that can show me! :-( Bear with me!