Pollen Collection And Long Term Storage

[Northern Grower]

I thought it would be good to get up a thread on how I collect and store my pollen. I have managed to keep viable pollen for well over a year.

This is how i collect my pollen, the stem of the plant goes into the slit. Keep it simple after all.

I tap it all out onto a glass surface.

This is one part i see allot of people miss. You need to separate the pollen sacs from the pollen. Any kind of moisture is the enemy of pollen. If you keep moist plant matter with the pollen during storage you will reduce the shelf life.
Zero moisture!!!

Which brings us to the storage part of this thread. I store my pollen in little bags, with a few grains of rice in it. The rice is to help pull out any moisture while it's in the freezer. Silica desiccant balls also work too. Anything to help draw out moisture will work here.
Label your pollen so you know what it is.
s60= sour60 BP = breeder pack open pollen = open pollenation

After i let the pollen sit in the bag for 10 or 15 min, with the rice. It's ready for the freezer.

If you take you pollen in and out of the freezer often, the shelf life will be reduced. What i do is rub a few Qtips into the pollen while in the freezer, and place it back in there. I try to never let the pollen in the baggy get back to room temp. The change in temp will create moisture in the bag, which will destroy the pollen.

If you have to add more pollen to your freezer baggy, repeat this process, and let the new pollen get to the freezer temp before adding to the "long term storage baggy"

If you are good about it, you should be able to keep pollen for a long long time. :thumbs:

 

[mr.mcgregor]

nice one

Do you put the pollen straight into the freezer from the plant or do you let it dry out a little first?

 

[JM]

Thanks bailer... thats a great layout with nice pics! Well done m8!

 

[gearbear]

Sticky?

 

[Northern Grower]

nice one

Do you put the pollen straight into the freezer from the plant or do you let it dry out a little first?

I let it sit for 10 to 15 min. Even a half hour or an hour would be fine. Just to let the rice pull out some moisture before it hits the freezer.

I have put it in fresh off the plant and it's still been viable a few months down the road.

But it's a good idea to let the rice do some work before you pop it in there.

 

[JM]

perfect timing on this btw.. getting ready to extract my first male here in a few days I think...
AK47 x RR
He's a real studly dude too with a big hard flower cola!

 

[biteback]

Are the sillica gel bags good for keeping the pollen dry or are they toxic for the pollen?

 

[JM]

they're fine... rice is just cheaper...

 

[Lampey Simpkin]

I posted this before but you can fill this out like you work for a school/hospital so forth. And get 100 free, no shipping or anything. http://www.eppendorfna.com/int/?l=131&action=survey&surveyident=SAMPLEORDERFORMENA
I use them for seeds storage with a piece of sponge and silica balls. ( saw Dinafem doing it and seemed to be a good idea )

 

[NC420]

I posted this before but you can fill this out like you work for a school/hospital so forth. And get 100 free, no shipping or anything. http://www.eppendorfna.com/int/?l=131&action=survey&surveyident=SAMPLEORDERFORMENA
I use them for seeds storage with a piece of sponge and silica balls. ( saw Dinafem doing it and seemed to be a good idea )
View attachment 7442

Thanks man, I just filled out their form and am getting 100 of the little test vile I picked 4 different sets of 25...