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My attempt at storing Nep pollen in the freezer

I have 2 flowers on my spectabilis x ventricosa , one on a 'Miranda' cutting, and one on my 'Leessii'.
I want to preserve the pollen until I can find a female Nep so I put it in a Tupperware container with a smaller container that has a desiccant in it to keep the pollen dry. Acording to the ICPS this will last for months.
Has anyone tried this?
Here are some pics.
desiccant I bought at home depot a few years ago.
DR.jpg

small container with the Damp Rid in it.
pollen2.jpg

The whole thing before I put the cover on it.
pollen.jpg

Quick note, if you buy the damp rid shown you want to put the carton in a ziplock or you will have a mess as this stuff absorbs so much moisture that it turns to liquid.
Peace,
Zero
 
Have done this with pollen from other plants
and have had success, however I only had to wait with it
for a few weeks, as a "mate" showed up.

Different plants have different temperaments as far as how long
their pollen will store.

Good luck with finding a mate for your Nep,
and let us know on the situation when you do.
 
Cool, I'd been wondering why people don't store pollen more often.

How long do you leave the pollen heads with the Damp Rid?
 
swords,
I took Roberts word from another forum and left the remaining flowers until all were open(I didn't get much by clipping individual flowers) and tapped it on al foil and gently brushed the flowers with a bamboo skewer. Then I centered all the loose pollen and transferred that to a clean piece of al foil because I got a bunch of nectar on the foil and that will cause mold problems. Then into a jar at room temp with damprid for about 8hrs and into the freezer it went.
Total time from harvest to freezing was under 24hrs.
 
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I see, so just the pollen, no plant material.

I wonder if clipping the flower stalk and allowing it to dry overnight then shaking it could possibly yield a bit more pollen but perhaps the nectar would crystallize more of the pollen before then?
 
swords,
I did actually let the flower stalk dry over night in A/C air and got more pollen off from the flower stalk. Good idea.
I also let my temperate sundew flowers dry overnight. I get much more seed that way.
 
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