In article , Tim Perry wrote:

Tim Perry;810905 Wrote:
Anyone have suggestions on the best way to store pollen and keep it
viable.
I have two plants of the same genus, however, as they originate from
opposite sides of the globe they bloom months apart. I would like to
try to cross these plants, so I will need to store pollen from one
until the other blooms.

Continued;-

Anybody out there ???

Pollen is from Eriobotrya japonica, I'm thinking along these lines,

Pollen in small plastic container, or a test tube, cotton wool bung.
Inside a
larger container, moisture absorbing granules between the two ( the
sort you sometimes get in packaging ). Larger container has airtight
lid, and the whole stored in the deep freeze.

But will it work ? So many experts, so few answers!

I think it might depend on individual species. I know one bloke who
stores _Eucalyptus_ spp. pollen for some time in the fridge -- but
probably not as long as six months. (I'll ask him, IICR tomorrow.)
I've also been told that date pollen is routinely stored during the
season, but I'm not sure how or for how long. Maybe you could google
for something like "pollen storage [methods, techniques, etc.]"?

In at least some cleistogamous legumes the pollen dies very quickly
(e.g. shed at dusk, dead before morning). I suspect any dehydration
of their fresh pollen would probably kill it immediately. I don't
know what would happen if it was frozen without drying.

Why not just try it with your species? If you've got access to even
a low power microscope it's not hard to see pollen germ tubes
immerging. Of course, there could be a problem getting it to
germinate _in vitro_. :-) You could try googling something like
"pollen germination methods", or go to a decent library.

If you can get it to work with fresh pollen AND soon after drying/
freezing, you can then do your own quality control by testing small
samples as the weeks go by. You really need to be able to do this
anyway, otherwise you won't know if failure to cross was due to
incompatibility or just due to dead pollen! (And don't forget it's
possible that an interspecific cross will work in one direction but
not the other way.)

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID