My slides and cover slips arrived today so I thought I would have a peek at the H. folliculata pollen I harvested on 11/6
This pollen was dried overnight in a sealed container with ground up saltine crackers as a desiccant. The pollen was then froze for a few days, thawed and used to pollinate the next flower. Since that time it has sat at room temp in its sealed container. (Wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't still viable)
My media was approx 20% sucrose by volume... (I don’t have any scales, I was hoping I wouldnt need to invest in any). I prepared a slide; applied the pollen, and made a growth chamber by placing wet paper towel in the bottom of a bowl with the slide suspended above. This was then covered in cellophane and allowed to sit at room temp for 6 hours.
At 400x the pollen grains were easy to identify but no tubes were observed.
Many of the references indicate the media may need some boric acid and calcium nitrate.
I will try the plain sucrose media again with fresh pollen in an effort to isolate the problem. If they still don’t grow I will try fresh pollen using the onion membrane method.
Still waiting on microscope imager to arrive... so no pics yet.
This pollen was dried overnight in a sealed container with ground up saltine crackers as a desiccant. The pollen was then froze for a few days, thawed and used to pollinate the next flower. Since that time it has sat at room temp in its sealed container. (Wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't still viable)
My media was approx 20% sucrose by volume... (I don’t have any scales, I was hoping I wouldnt need to invest in any). I prepared a slide; applied the pollen, and made a growth chamber by placing wet paper towel in the bottom of a bowl with the slide suspended above. This was then covered in cellophane and allowed to sit at room temp for 6 hours.
At 400x the pollen grains were easy to identify but no tubes were observed.
Many of the references indicate the media may need some boric acid and calcium nitrate.
I will try the plain sucrose media again with fresh pollen in an effort to isolate the problem. If they still don’t grow I will try fresh pollen using the onion membrane method.
Still waiting on microscope imager to arrive... so no pics yet.