Pollination Station :
8 males had been selected. The rest culled.
Just before they start releasing pollen I leave them in the shed and cover the window for the light dep. this way the wind and bugs will have the least influence.
There are some real great structured plants - ‘B3’ and ‘LB1’ being my two favourite. LB1 being the greasiest most vigorous and B3 the chunkiest.
I also kept one of the crinkle males for all the crinkle girls:
Each male pollinates 4-5 ladies. Throughout this past week over most days I head into the male shed with a mason jar, a lid and a water spray bottle - I bend the top flower of one of the males and tap it into the jar - I do this with the door closed. I will use much less than 1% of potential pollen for any given plant - and I only need to see a small amount of open sepals before I collect.
After a change of clothes and a good rinse of my face/beard and hands I will head to the hoop house and begin labeling the selected females. After I move the selected girls (4-5 each day for each male) out of the hoop house - and into the tomato hoop - labeled with their tag as well as the males tag. I’ve had fair success of avoiding pollinating the tops without too much more than just being very mindful and careful with the application of the pollen to the lowers. Less is more, that’ shit just flies in all directions when in abundance. However as I usually do this type of pollination indoors - and with the wind outdoors as an extra precaution - I tried bagging the tops like you see here. ( pooch for your viewing pleasure)
This is the first time I tried this/ I noticed with a few in the first couple days I wasn’t careful with how I folded the leaves into the bag and the top buds rubbed on the bag and now some of the buds are ‘bruised’ - but only a few plants and I was able to be more careful as I completed pollination over the next several days with the remaining ladies. Before returning to their tent I give them a good spray down - this is generally later in the day - I let them sit with the tomatoes for some time while they take that pollen.
The plants are smelling great - and the variety is astounding - really is a complete roll of several dice. A good handful of plants, maybe 1/4 or so are glowing purple, lots of chunky stout plants.
Every single lady has now been dabbed - the last 5 plants were meant for ‘R7’ male - but his pollen never dropped only the sacs fell off (he didn’t adapt well to the lower light in the shed and all the ). Instead I used a combo of the pollen of the 7 remaining males. I also had a pure Michigan male I had - he was kept in the house… and I had no ladies for him… so I did use two of the ladies from this project… RIP.
All the males have been chopped - the first few pollinated ladies are already showing their beans. Looks like I’ll have plenty, much more than needed for the f4’s selection - happy to share these around.