Frankenstein’s Daughter Hilda BX-2 Pollination
I made my first pass at pollinating a Hilda BX-1 female with fresh pollen from an original Frankenstein clone this week. I’ll do another pollination session next week and call it done.
Here are some notes on the process.
The pollen donor is one of the many Frankie clone moms I’ve made over the last 18 months. She emerged from the bonsai mom dungeon into the light and was reversed with STS about seven weeks ago. The pollen laden flowers are beginning to drop their golden dust.
My technique for collecting pollen is a mashup of good ideas from more expert growers. I like to keep the donor growing during pollen collection, and I lean the entire plant & pot over a large stainless steel bowl to collect the droppings.
This tape keeps the soil in the pot while allowing me to feed and water easily through the open slot.
This little ultrasonic Sonicare Battery toothbrush is a game changer for pollen collection.
Merely touching the brush to a clump of male flowers causes any that are ready to dump pollen and fall into the bowl.
The contents of the bowl are carefully swept into the Pollen Shaker.
The pollen shaker has a large top compartment for raw pollen and harvested flowers. The top section is separated from the bottom compartment by a fine screen that lets the pollen fall through while keeping the plant material and other contaminates out.
The lower section is checked to see how much was collected. I place a square of parchment paper in the bottom section to collect the pollen.
The fewer surfaces the pollen touches the better. So this paper is the last thing to touch the pollen before storage. It will be folded and stored in a glassine envelope once it is covered in pollen.
This plant isn’t particularly productive, the yellow dust is a typical day’s worth of collection. Most male flowers (Anthers) haven’t opened up yet.
This well-sealed ammo box includes a small dehumidifier, the pollen shaker and the paper coin envelopes that will store the collected pollen. The humidity in this box stays in the 30% RH range so the collected pollen stays dry to ensure viability.
All that’s left is to dust the female pistils with a fine brush, wait a few hours, then spray her down to deactivate the pollen before she rejoins her girlfriends in the tent!
Our fecund female before her hot date:
And, The Morning After
You can see a few pollen specks on the surrounding leaves. Every one of those pistils with a shrunken body, or bent tip is busy transporting a bit of pollen down to the ovum below where a seed will develop.
A Glorious Gathering of the Gametes!
As a famous OGer is fond of saying, “SS/BW,”
-Grouchy