Breeding and Seed Production of Ornamental Crops (2+1)

Exercise - 2

Aim: Pollen collection, its preparation and storage.
Objective:- Collection of pollen for controlled hybridization.
Materials required:- Scissors, forceps, petri dishes, camel hair brush, and permanent marker.
Procedure:

1. Determine the exact time of anther dehiscence by visual observation.
2. Collect the pollen from freshly opened flower.
3. To avoid contamination it is advised to collect anthers in a petriplate before dehiscence (i.e. balloon or popcorn stage)
4. Anthers at balloon stage are kept in a warm wind free area/sunlight by keeping the upper lid of petri dish slightly tilted to allow exchange of air to avoid condensation of vapours.
5. Gently tap the freshly dehisced anthers on a non sticking clean paper to dust the pollen.

Storage:
Pollen can be used fresh immediately after dehiscence or can be stored for a delayed use by transferring into small loosely stoppered glass vials. These are stored in desiccators over anhydrous calcium sulphate until use. For long term storage, keep the desiccators containing pollen vials in a deep freezer below 20^oC or store the pollen in small gelatin capsules or Teflon vials placed in cry flasks containing liquid Nitrogen at -196^oC.
Precautions:

1. Same brush should not be used for collection of pollens from more than one plant.
2. Use mask to avoid pollen allergy.
3. Keep anthers in wind free area.