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Lakewood, CO

Hello,

I have seen on a diary entry that I can no longer locate that one of you growers cut a male flower and then refrigerated (or freezed) it. I am assuming this was done to wait for the female to open.
Since I only have one good plant at this point, I may have to do it as well.
Can somebody explain how to do this?
Freeze in freezer or just refrigerator?
How long will it last?
Do I have to remove it from refrigerator hours before using for pollinating a female flower?
Any other useful tips?

Thank you

6/24/2008 9:15:02 PM

milford, CT,

Mildred, I don't refrigerate the flowers...why?...you want them plump with pollen in the morning...if you refrigerate them they will be either closed or very light on pollen. Cut them the night before pollination and put them on the counter...they'll be nice and ready in the morning. Mark

6/24/2008 9:29:27 PM

San Jose garysand@pacbell.net

you can cut the male(s) the night b4 they are going to open and the female will be ready, as far as i know that is it. there are a lot of CO growers if you need some males and your plant is not producing at the correct time.

I also just put the males in a vase of water on the counter

6/25/2008 11:05:49 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Like Mark and Gary, I cut them the evening before they are going to open if there is a pollination happening, and leave them at room temperature to open normally.

6/25/2008 11:56:35 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

I have had, if the male was just opening, to pick it with a very long stem and put in refrigerator overnight, and had plenty of pollen AND got a successful set from it. I did let it warm up a little and peeled the flower open and it worked fine.

I think it has a little to do with the plant, if the males put out a lot of pollen or not. Counter is okay unless you have 90 plus temps which we get here in house during the day. Lakewood's NW of Denver and might not fry as bad as it does here...

6/27/2008 9:07:44 AM

Cochecton, NY

what if you had a male open and no sign of a female opening. I have one female on one plant that is about two feet out. My plants are still very short. How do you know if it is the night before opening??? Should I pollinate the close female? Crappy thing is that I am leaving to head to mississippi this coming tuesday and will not be back until the fourth. Work stinks sometimes. any advice. My wife knows nothing about this stuff so I cannot ask her to help out while I am gone. could someone e-mail me a pic of a night before opening flower so I know what I am looking for? I went out this morning and everything was the same. I just went out again to water and blamo!!! An open male!!!!!!! Now that I am out of breath!!

6/28/2008 11:09:30 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Usually the one about to open will have lengthened the petal part, and gone from pointy tip (2 days) to showing a touch of separation (night before) and you can see the bright yellow tips of the flower petals. They usually open very quickly... as you seen.

I would say take the close in female OFF, and worry about it when you come back, on trying another set. I usually have the male open the day before the female is ready, I'm a pro at pickNsave males...

6/29/2008 2:28:45 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

I have spent the day toiling under the leaves, cleaning things up and arranging and WEEDING (this getting to be an honorary four letter word here) and discovered that my first chosen (on the secondary that is outdoing the main) female 1009 Young flower is farther along than I thought, ready to go in the morning. At least the 1018 Langevin is also ready with a male; which is better than my luck ever is. ON top that it came to pass I found my bags. I will be going out in a bit for pictures, and will post to here the link to my diary after that posts, pictures of 'about to open' male and female. I need to find some 2 liter soda bottles, fill and freeze for tomorrow, they're saying 90's... to keep her cool after.

6/29/2008 6:18:40 PM