zee_werp Posted February 12, 2006 Hmm well recently I had a scop that was flowering with three buds. I pollinated all three, two of them with faslimys Juul's pollen and one with some bridgesii pollen, all of which was collected within 2 months of pollination and kept in the fridge on cotton buds. I rubbed the cotton bud tips all over the 'starfish' shaped female stigmas of the flower, once as soon as it opened, once a few hours later, and once in the morning or mid day of the day after it opened. The first one dropped off about a week later. Then I decided to try an experiment on the next one of cutting off the dead 'flower' part leaving only the base where the fruit forms (giving an extra 2cm or so for safety). My theory behind this was maybe the fertilized fruit could drop off anyway given the weight of the dead flower, particularly if it gets wet. But alas the last two buds fell off yesterday and today as well. Other people I've talked to have also reported low / no success with artificial pollination. So I am wondering, what kind of success rates have others of you experienced? What are the factors involved in a successful pollination, or is it more or less random? How vital is pollen freshness in the whole schebang? I thought 1 month old pollen should be fine but maybe I am wrong. Any tips or advice or experiences would be much appreciated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rev Posted February 12, 2006 Its all over the place Some cacti are really picky - others arent for example ive used pollen to fert both echinopsis, T spachianus and T pachanoi on teh same night the first two take easily but pach doesnt same pollen and this has happenned more than once wher ethe same pollen gives very different results sometimes when the pach has failed and even later down the track its still fine on other species Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
