Best way to collect, store, use and mail pollen?

Similar to mine… :+1:

Cheers
G

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Blue Sunshine pollen harvested! The reflective insulation was kind of a PITA due to pollen getting in the small creases around the bubbles. Otherwise it went well!

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Looks like a very nice haul!

:green_heart: :seedling:

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Is it safe to mail pollen this time of year, or will the heat degrade the viability or anything?

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If I remember correctly I think it stays viable up to 140 degrees F , I think lol, maybe @lefthandseeds knows?

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Snapped this from @RomulanGenetics IG. It is completely incorrect. I have successfully pollinated flowers with pollen kept at room temp in my top drawer more than half a dozen times and the pollens have been anywhere from a few weeks old to over 6 months old.

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I agree, pollen will last much longer then they say at room temps.

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I agree with you for the viability, the “IG post” was a bit too pushy for my taste. And unfortunately i can’t see the ref" of the “study/researchers” mentioned, generally a red flag for me. The intentions are at least clear, there is something itching the breeder (i guess by the nick) about the trades of pollen.

But there is a diamond shining in the ass of the goat :woozy_face:

Underlined, the person is talking also about the maturity of the pollen (timing) and it’s pretty correct to me.

I’ve personnally pushed one time the test on a large scale on differents (strains) fresh pollen straight from the males. With a more radical and industrial approach :

I’ve passed all batchs under this lamp for a while (enough to “cook” it ^^). It was initially for a stupid idea about pathogens, but the results was totally in accordance with “the underline” of the pushy post. Only the batch collected during mid gave decent amount of seeds. It was in my habits already because the differences in progeny from one batch to another, after that it became religion for me lol

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I’ve read similar things in other papers.

There’s a simple test to check pollen fertility and then count the ones that activated on a microscope slide.
That said, I’ve had several successful uses (5?) of pollen I’ve collected 6 mo to 1yr+ old …and that stuff was cut 5:1 and mailed across the continent :wink:

There’s some serious overkill with pollen, like orders of magnitude…
For our purposes, probably something like 1% viability (or less) is fine… :+1:

Cheers
G

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I used this method recently. -worked well enough. From there, it was 3-weeks of drying and then into centrifuge vials with a chemistry spoon.

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Drying male flowers in a paper bag works good then collect on paper, newspaper works. I’ve always mailed pollen folded in paper, it draws out moisture.
If you keep males and want to revenge them, after they form sacs move it back to veg room. The sacs will start to open as it revegs. You can bring the females in the veg room to get pollinated, spray with water and return to flower room.

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Like growing… there are all kinds of way to store pollen.

I have had the best luck with drying the pollen using desiccant and then placing pollen in a piece of paper.

Then using my Origami skills to fold it up…

Slap the folded paper full of already dried pollen in a vacuum seal bag with some desiccant and then into the refrigerator.

I have had 100% success rate using this method so far.

I have also placed pollen in a plastic vial and vacuum sealed which has not disappointed me yet…

1. Dry the pollen
2. Contain the dried pollen (paper preferred)
3. Slap in a vacuum bag with desiccant
4. Vacuum seal pollen with desiccant.
5. Refrigerate/ freeze.
Disco!

My .02!

Not sure how @Longtooth’s post only received a few likes OGers!
It’s BOG’s Sour Grape Pollen… :green_heart:

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Thought I’d share the storage technique I settled on after trying various things.

Got 4 years and counting on some fem pollen.

Especially sieving the debris out with a 200 mesh fabric made a big difference in storage life, thanks to Satva for this genius tip.

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So what’s the best way to ship pollen from Canada to USA? I would rather use an envelope than a bubble mailer with a vial. The washer and coin flip method somehow?

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Big Mike just sent me some like this, in a card and envelope :+1:t4:

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Pretty sure all of Doug’s just came in a baggie.
Just don’t stuff the baggie full, and probably tape the ziplock. Gets through the rollers just fine.
@DougDawson, can you chime in here?

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I don’t have much pollen, so cleaning it and bagging it would leave a lot less. I’m planning on using a swab to swab up some pollen and put the tips in vials. Person receiving pollen can then just use the qtip head to tap on their plant to pollinate…or something.
This is the best I could come up with.

Small, very small batch of femmed pollen.

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You got it right. I just put in zip lock jewelry baggies. Then just tape the baggie into a card and ship. No other special attention needed and I have sent out hundreds and hundreds of them at this point. :v:

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“Generally it’s best to put the females into flower a week or two before the males”.

Mine never grow tags to tell me “female” or 'Male". How do you determine that?

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