For good measure, I applied the rest of the (C99xJH) pollen from @Maddawg . I took pics to show the application method. I have never attempted to selectively pollinate in my garden, so this is learning something new for me.
My intent is to minimize the likelihood of cross contamination between pollenated branches. I know that the probability cannot be reduced to zero.
If the female flower is ready to reproduce and the pollen source is viable, as far as I can reason, there are two things that reduce the probabilty of getting pollinated: 1) distance and 2) physical obstructions to the movement of pollen.
Since distance is not on my side, I must make a good obstruction. In addition, I will selectively pollinate branches on the farthest extents of the plants. I’m not really concerned about pollination of buds that were not intended for polination. I’m fine with seedy outdoor, but that will give a good indication of how well the pollen applications were contained to their intended branches.
In my kitchen, I prepare a tall trash bag. I carefully inspect it for holes. I fill it with air, twist the open end, and push on it to see that the air does not leak out easily.
I position the bag to place pollen into one of the bottom corners. The pollen was placed in a small zip baggie and then placed into the corner of the trash bag, with the zip baggie still closed. This was done with the intent to contain the pollen within the bag as much as possible so that stray pollen would not be released as I position the bag on the branch. Then, I twist the bag and use a twist tie to close that corner of the bag.
When I slide the bag over the intended branch, I twist up the open end and use twist ties to hold it on the branch. Then I remove the twist tie that isolates the pollen to the corner of the trash bag.
I included qtips in the isolated corner to help apply pollen. The qtips were not used for the intended purpose, but they did help to open the zip baggie that contained the pollen. Opening the little zip baggie was challenging, but I was abke to do it with patience and careful maneuvering.
Then I slid the baggie up to the highest position inside the trash bag, removed the folded paper with pollen inside, and proceed to slide the paper all over the buds. Then I shook it around. Hopefully, that gave the branch a good dusting.
I applied the pollen at sunset and left the bag on the branch overnight. In the morning, I used a mister attachment on a garden hose to mist the buds on the rest of the garden bedore removing the bag. As I removed the bag, I had the mister in one hand spraying into the bag as I removed the twist tie holding it on the branch. I thoroughly soaked the branch and inside of the bag as I removed it from the branch.
If you have a better method for isolating pollen application, or if you can suggest improvements to the process, please comment.
The other plants still have 2 to 3 weeks until I apply pollen.
