How to Pollinate Adeniums Update
David Clulow
you seem not to have seen them so I have extended them and am sending
them again. When pollinating please do not use a small paint brush as
this is very difficult to sterilize. It can be done with alcohol but
it is difficult, if you use a brush it is quite possible for a total
pollen mixture to be applied to the female parent possibly causing a
lot of confusion when they flower!
HOW TO POLLINATE ADENIUMS
If you are serious about pollinating Adeniums you will need some basic
equipment:
1 Dental tweezers for trimming the flower after stripping
off the petals and also to remove most of the anther cone (Claudius
Ash, Surgery No.13, catalogue number 6242 5013)
2 Simple dental probe (stainless steel Cotterill No.1) this has
one horizontal flat surface, ideal for extracting the pollen from the
anther cone and the other end is turned through ninety degrees and
beautifully polished, ideal for pushing the pollen on to the base of
the stigma. These two items (or similar) can be obtained from any
dental supplier or even your local friendly dentist may let you have
them. Mark Dimmitt recommends using a small scalpel or small artist's
razorblade knife with a narrow blade but I find the dental probe more
convenient.
3 Note book, preferably hard backed, to keep a note of the
crosses and the dates of the cross.
4 Propelling pencil 0.5mm for keeping the notes
5 Rubber eraser for corrections
6 Small tie on labels to identify the cross
7 HB ordinary pencil for writing on the labels (the propelling
pencil gives print too narrow and can soon be illegible)
8 Pencil sharpener
I keep the above 'tools' in a small pencil box on top of the notebook
together with a pair of special half eye reading spectacles.
VISION
If you are under 40 years old skip this paragraph. Pollinating
Adeniums is an extremely delicate operation and you need excellent
close up vision. As a retired optometrist here is what I would
recommend. At the age of 40, even if you are emmetropic (i.e. have
perfect distance vision) a pair of inexpensive, ready-made, half eye
reading spectacles of +2.00 will be useful or possibly essential. If
you are aged 50 then ask you optometrist to give you an especially
high reading addition of around +3.00 and over the age of 60 you will
need +4.00. Also request you optometrist to check you eyes muscle
balance (I am sure he will have already done this) and if he finds any
significant exophoria then I would suggest he prescribes for you a
small amount of base in prism to avoid eye strain or headaches when
undertaking this very close detailed work.
POLLINATING
This is difficult to describe and much easier to explain with photos.
Michael Miyashiro of Adeniums of Hawaii, said he would post some
photos on his site by the end of 1999, but we are still waiting! (So
I have taken some close ups and indeed some extreme close ups and hope
they will be useful
Photos
7701 Basic tools as described above
6436 Remove the top four petals (pull them off with your fingers)
6437 a close up
7719 Trim around the anther cone with the tweezers; do not use
scissors as this could transfer any virus infection.
7714 Grab the base of the anther filaments firmly with the tweezers
then gently pull them off with your fingers. (If you don't do this,
they can very easily knock the pollen off the probe)
7726 Anther cone ready for pollen extraction
6444 and 64501 These photos are for demonstration only of where to
find the pollen. If you attempt to do this to get at the pollen then
there is a severe danger off the pollen dropping out. The pollen is
at the apex of the cone. The stigma or receptive surface has a
flattish top which is non-receptive so that self pollination cannot
take place. The receptive area is the shiny curved surface just below
this. Most Adeniums are self sterile and will not set a seed pod if
self pollinated.
7733 This shows where to place the dental probe in order to extract
the pollen. The cone is not solid; it is composed of five vertical
strands to allow access to the pollen by an insect's proboscis or with
a dental probe
6486 This shows the extracted pollen. This is just Adenium obesum
which gives a lot of pollen. The more complex hybrids frequently have
very little pollen, so you need to very careful to extract every
grain. Indeed some of the more complex hybrids are completely pollen
sterile. You will soon find out which they are!
6458 Now using the tweezers pull off all the pieces of the anther
cone, but leave one on. If you remove this last one frequently
everything comes out and you need to start again! As I said before
the receptive surface is the white donut shaped curved area below the
flat top.
6450 A close up of the stigma or receptive area
6494 & 7737 Applying pollen
6495 Pollen applied a little too low
7742 Pushing pollen to the stigma
6467 Pollen pushed to the correct receptive area -- pollinated!
BRxcrispum7 Write the cross in the note book and apply a label
IMMEDIATELY – It is remarkable how quickly you can forget exactly what
you have done!
6468 If you are expecting any rain within the next 48 hours and
working in the open air, it is prudent to fold the bottom of the
flower over to protect your work from direct sun and rain.
5240 With any luck a double pod will form, if nothing has happened
within two weeks nothing will. My experience is that only around ten
percent of crosses will form seed pods.
7708 This shows a pod forming on a white Adenium, the pod is green
and shows no pigment
5243 After about two months, protect the pod as shown. This is net
curtain material stapled over the pod. Other members have recommended
panty hose. The pods usually ripen and split after around 12 to 15
weeks. This is very important as the seeds have a 'parachute' at each
end and when the pod splits they are likely to blow away very quickly.
For those of you receiving this with the non-text portion removed, the
photos can be seen at:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Adenium
Happy hybridizing
David in Venezuela
You have been sent 22 pictures.
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