No Pollen

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Jun 15, 2007 6:09 pm

Is the heat and lack of rain the reason that my hosta flowers have no pollen? A few days ago, I found nice fluffy pollen in a Great Plains bloom but no pollen since then on Great Plains or any of my others that are blooming.

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » Jun 15, 2007 11:29 pm

What do you mean by 'no pollen?' If there are no anthers?...or the bees may have gotten to it first...?

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Jun 15, 2007 11:43 pm

There are anthers but I can see a black line down the middle and I can't get any pollen off of them. The first day that Great Plains bloomed there was nice fluffy pollen on the anthers. I really haven't noticed too many bees around. Does the pollen dry up if you don't get it early in the morning? I know it sounds like a dumb question but I've never really tried doing deliberate crosses before except once with a seedling a few years ago.

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » Jun 15, 2007 11:46 pm

No, the pollen won't dry up, I think your bees are getting to it first. They will clean the pollen off the anthers. What time of day are you checking your flowers?

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Jun 15, 2007 11:49 pm

Much too late in the day I'm afraid. I'll have to get out there early and check them. I read in the Hybridizing section at The Hosta Library about collecting anthers the night before and laying them on a paper towel overnight for use the next day. Maybe I'll try that. Oops, I guess it said to collect the large buds that are going to open then next day and bring them in.

largosmom · Post by **largosmom** » Jun 15, 2007 11:52 pm

I'm still figuring this out too. I haven't gotten much pollen yet. I think I need magnifiers on my eyes!

Laura

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » Jun 16, 2007 12:07 am

If you are going to breed the hosta, you don't want to bring the buds in. If you want to collect the pollen, just trim back the unopened flower petals so you can get the anthers snipped off, being careful not to damage the stigma. Trimming back the petals will also keep the bees from landing on the flower and accidentally pollinating the flower you plan to pollinate the next morning. You can also just cover them with something. I find if I get outside even before 9 a.m. there is still pollen, but I haven't checked the last few days since it has warmed up. I'm new at this, too, so don't have many ideas.

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Jun 16, 2007 12:27 am

We can all learn together. Thanks for refreshing my memory Charla. I should already know all the things you just said. I have heard or read about trimming the petals and covering the flowers. LucyGoose and I went to a presentation by Olga Petryszyn a couple of years ago. She made it all sound so easy. Now I need to put it all together and into practice. I think after doing it a few times it won't be so intimidating. If it doesn't work, just try again. That first day, I selfed Great Plains. I also tried some pollen on Forest Shadows. One FS cross didn't take and the other looks doubtful but I think the GP is forming a pod.

Jamie · Post by **Jamie** » Jun 16, 2007 12:36 am

I've got the same problem here and it's the heat. It happens every year to me when the temps get above 90 here like they have the last week.

From Gary Trucks at the Hosta Library Hybridizing Link:
Oh ya, this too, even though it may not be that hot out if the flowers are getting to much sun on them they will heat up 10 to 15 degrees hotter than the air temps and all seed production will abort. So if it is 85 outside the actual surface temp of the flower can be 95 to 100 degrees. The darker colored flower the hotter it will get.

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Jun 16, 2007 12:45 am

Thanks Jamie. I thought I remembered reading here that the heat even reduced the success of OP pods. Now that my memory has been jogged, I think it was last year that I had fewer pods than in previous years because of the heat wave when many of them were blooming. I'm not planning on doing a huge number of crosses but I thought it would be fun to try a few.

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » Jun 16, 2007 8:47 am

I had noticed the reduced pollen amounts a couple of weeks ago when I played with a bit of hybridizing. I could get enough pollen to dab on the ones that I wanted, but I brought pollen in from Green Piecrust & Paradigm to let it fluff up so I could store it on Q-tips. But it never fluffed. It wasn't all that hot yet then either. Mid-80's maybe...

Some varieties seem to have substantially more fluffy pollen than others. But I haven't been trying to cross anything lately since the ones I really want to use are not blooming yet. There are nice pods forming on all the ones I did try crossing though.

MollyD · Post by **MollyD** » Jun 16, 2007 9:51 am

I've never looked carefully at hosta pollen but if it behaves at all like daylily pollen the anthers will close up when the temps get low. This is to protect the pollen. As the temps warm up (around 63) the anthers begin to open and the pollen looks fluffy. Before this happens you would look and think you have no pollen there.

Just a thought.

MollyD

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Jun 16, 2007 11:21 am

Reldon, I'm glad you have some successful crosses. I'm pretty sure I only have the one pod on Great Plains. The temps were cooler on the day I made the cross.

Molly, Thanks for the info. I did not know that. That isn't the problem now. It's been in the upper 80s and even touching into the 90s the past few days.

MollyD · Post by **MollyD** » Jun 16, 2007 1:57 pm

Almost that during the day here but nights are very cool in the 50's. Early morning it's hovering around 60 till around 8 am. Then zoom the temperature climbs making crosses very difficult to set!

MollyD

thehostagourmet · Post by **thehostagourmet** » Jun 17, 2007 9:16 am

Pat, try this. The night before you want the pollen, or to cross that Hosta as pod parent, strip the flower as Charla reminded you, remove anthers from the stamens, and store them in paper where it's not too hot. I store them in my garage, but nights aren't hot in the Buffalo area.

I fold 4" square note paper into little packets, labeling with the number of the pollen donor. Each of my Hostas has a number which makes labeling easier.

Presto, the next morning you have useable pollen. Then you can freeze what you don't use. The trick is to learn when the flower would open the following morning. They tend to blow up like a balloon, but some will fool you.

George