I have stored pollen for up to 12 months with good results. I depends on the
genus and the quality of your storage area. I use glasine envelopes made
from negative holders and a jar with silicon gel in the bottom to hold them.
I then place this in the butter holder in may refrigerator door. (My wife
loves finding what new object I am storing in the butter holder this month.)
Paph's up to 6 months very few problems
Phal's up to 6 months problems when stored longer
Cattelya's and relatives up to 12 months very few problems
I measure problems by will I get viable seed from a cross made with the
pollen. I do not store longer than 12 months as I usually have the plant
back in bloom again and can get fresh pollen.
Tom
/---------------------------------------------------\
| Tom Hillson | Iowa State University |
| Computer Coordinator | Experiment Station |
| hillson@iastate.edu | Room 17 Curtiss Hall |
| (515) 294-1543 | Ames, IA 50011 |
>-------------------------------------------------<
| "Things change only if you put in your two cents" |
\---------------------------------------------------/
===================end of message======================
I remember another message that said the silica gel should be removed
after only a few days, but that might have been in "rec.gardens" or
somewhere else.
To subscribe to the orchids group:
Send e-mail to "mailserv@scuacc.scu.edu", with
"sub orchids" to subscribe.
"help" get a list of other commands.
"index" get a list of files that you can have sent to you (mostly logs
of previous messages).
There's a new book published within the past year that people have been
talking about in the orchids group. The title is something close to
"In-Vitro Propagation of Orchids".
Other groups:
There are not yet groups for bromeliads or cactii. If anyone wants these
groups, they might send e-mail to the person maintaining the aroids listserve
at Missouri Botanical Gardens. Once the listserve is up and running for the
aroids group, it should be no problem to add new groups if there's enough
disk space and the computer can handle the added load.
Perry Malouf is having trouble with his computer. He said he has recently
contacted the curator for the Nepenthes at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
She appears to be a very nice person to talk to and she may get an account at
"mobot" in the near future so she can talk to us on the the "cp" group.
-- Don Burden New Albany, Indiana, USA donb@coplex.com