Hi Nhu, A friend of mine who hybridizes Aloes mentioned using saliva on a small paintbrush to help "trick" the plant into accepting pollen from other species. Possibly similar to Hans' cement powder application, although from an acidic reaction, it would seem. All very interesting... Cheers. Gregg DeChirico Santa Barbara, California ________________________________ From: Nhu Nguyen <xerantheum@gmail.com> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 2:40 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] Pollen Hi Hans, Do you mean you brush the pistil with cement powder and then pollinate it with the pollen from the same plant? I can't imagine that cement powder alone would do the trick without pollen. It's a neat trick and could be very nicely applicable. I'll have to give it a try! I suspect that the high alkalinity of cement interferes with whatever compounds on the pistil, allowing the pollen grains to germinate. Nhu On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 1:21 PM, Hans Huizing <hanshuizing@home.nl> wrote: > I put some cement powder (yes cement powder) on a cotton tip and put it > on the pistil. >