Microwaved pollen

Tim Harvey via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Thu, 27 Jan 2022 15:35:36 PST
Hi Uli,
Yes, that was basically it. Somehow I got it into my head that you thought it would not self, but the microwaved pollen overcame that. Encouraging it is a different matter - my apologies!
There was no picture, probably something my antivirus software wants to add. I’m in Southern California. 

Regards,

 T

> On Jan 27, 2022, at 2:15 PM, Uli via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
> 
> Hello Tim,
> 
> 
> Thank you for your comment. I read it three times and do not really understand what you want to say. If your concern is that A. clanwilliamiglora would produce selfed seed, I would only be too happy if it did. All my effort was to coax it into accepting its own pollen. My plant did not do so with different gardeners over several years, it went to a friend and flowered there, no seed, he returned the bulb to me and my first attempt to pollinate with its own pollen failed, the flowers aborted. Fortunately there were two scapes, one later than the other flowering. So there were more flowers left with which I followed the advice given to me on microwaving pollen. But even with this procedure 40 to 50 % of the pollinated flowers still aborted. To me this speaks against self fertility. Quite honestly it never crossed my mind that the seed could be of hybrid origin. I of course did not use any other pollen when I microwaved its own pollen and there were no other Albucas in flower at the end of May when the procedure took place. In my article I will refer to another plant which produced a few seeds after microwaving pollen: HIppeastrum evansiae. In this case I am VERY sure that there is no hybridisation. I have been growing and flowering a potful of bulbs for about 20 years, as it is stoloniferous the bulbs are all the same clone. I pollinated every year. It always looked very promising with swelling pods but then everything aborted. Always in 20 years. So this year I tried microwaving the pollen but not with the same technique as in the Albuca. The result was one pod with a few seeds. The resulting seedlings are very uniform and look like the mother plant. My question: why should this be Hybrid seed at this given moment if this plant never ever set seed before? As far as I remember (not 100% sure) there were no other Hippeastrum in flower so early in the year. H. evansiae is always the first one to flower after dry dormancy. Again, I did not use any other pollen to get seed.
> 
> I fully agree with you about the pollinator issue. I have a very good example in mind: Scilla hyacinthina. It flowered in my old garden in Germany, never a grain of seed. After I planted the big bulbs in my garden in Portugal, I had a fantastic show of the tall blue spikes which later on bent under the load of seed. EVERY flower had produced a pod with several seeds in it. As I did not do anything there must have been the right pollinator.  The plant comes from a mediterranean climate after all.
> 
> I grow other Albucas which self seed like mad, A. shawii, juncifolia, fragrans (not sure if this one is correctly named, at least no fragrance) and A. spiralis. But there are other ones, a yellow one with upright flowers which also needed the microwaves.....
> 
> Another question: Did you mean to attach a picture of your Albuca clanwilliamigloria? there was a link under your contribution but I could only open a green envelope which did not open further and an AVG advertisment. I would love to see pictures of your naturalizing Albuca. Where and in which climate do you garden?
> 
> The article on the microwave treatment was sent to those people who helped me with advice. As I have written everything from memory and as there are some complex technical details, I would like to have it proof read. This is not meant to put them under time pressure if they would read this. As soon as everything is sorted out it will be published.
> 
> Bye for now
> 
> Uli
> 
> 
> Hi Uli,
> 
> My fundamental concern is that Albuca clanwilliamgloria will self, just that the conditions for it to do so have not been met. It has naturalized in my garden (it hates pots) and seed production is most dependent on the weather. Over more than ten years, I have never seen anything pollinating them. Some years, hand-pollination of different plants produces zero seed, in others, I get hundreds without doing anything.
> Twenty years ago, it was believed Aloes do not self, but now we know different.
> 
> I would be cautious.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> T
> 
> 
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