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16m old heli pollen

February of 2012, froze samples from 3 different species.
Tested today via pollen tube growth, all still viable after being frozen for 16m in a home refrigerator/freezer

Sample #1
pollen1.jpg


:cool:
 
awesome news :D so after harvesting, do you dry it out prior to the freeze?
 
Yes... but I don't know for sure it's required, I've not tried "from flower to freezer"

In addition to pollen tube growth checks, Luca has successfully pollinated a flower using pollen I had frozen for one year.
 
Butch, is that onion I see in the background? :poke:
 
Now that I know the samples are still viable, we do it pokie-style tomorrow
You better be near phone :p
 
Cool, good to know :) Thanks for the info Av!
 
Fantastic pic B. Wow. How did you dry the pollen? Did u bake it or leave it out in the sun in a bag? or did u just leave it out in the open at RT?
 
  • #10
Thanks all!

V, I'm working on a write up so bear with me a bit on the details, not ready to put them out in public yet.
but none of the above ;-)

Ill catch ya on gtalk and we can talk ;-)
 
  • #11
still playing with old pollen :)

some cool looking 16m old pollen pics:
neg_control.jpg

nonmicrowaved.jpg

microwaved40secs.jpg

sample2_pic2.jpg


thanks for looking
 
  • #12
Congrats on the successful storage Butch. No surprise here though. You are the heli master;).
 
  • #13
LOL, I think Jen (pokie) would say she wonders how I manage to turn on a light bulb....

(she has been showing me how to do the 1% MTT stain test for pollen viability)
Trying to do a good "killed pollen" test for a negative control.

But if it works like hoped, those that are pink are viable and maybe those with no tint but black lines.

Thinking any with yellow tint (black lines or not) are bad... but that is what the killed test should confirm.
 
  • #15
LOL thanks David...

Jen probably needs to vent hehehehehe, poor thang, I think I tried her patience :)

enjoy at my expense old friend :)
 
  • #16
Just took a peek at a killed and not killed sample

Same pollen sample, same stain solution, and both incubated together.
First image is killed pollen, second one is non killed pollen
woot woot!!

killed.jpg

notkilled.jpg


Don't think you could ask for much better :-O
That is just so cool...
 
Last edited:
  • #17
That is cool.
 
  • #18
BigBella, how can you see colors? I thought doggies were color blind. Perhaps, in shades of grey.....

The negative control dead pollen, does not look dead enough to me...

fun.fun.fun :boogie:
 
  • #19
BigBella, how can you see colors? I thought doggies were color blind. Perhaps, in shades of grey.....

The negative control dead pollen, does not look dead enough to me...

It's all shades of gray; and I beheaded that emoticon . . .
 
  • #20
The negative control dead pollen, does not look dead enough to me...

But, but, but it stayed yellow, ugh...
Yes teacher, I will expose some to 80c for 24 hrs :p

Oh and that first batch of MTT was still good, I had refrigerated it. That one paper said it would be good in fridge for a week or two as long as its color was unchanged. I used it for those last two trials...
What was left got divided up and frozen as well.
 
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