microwaved pollen

Robert Lauf via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Wed, 26 Jan 2022 06:49:34 PST
 Tim raises a good point, and I'll probably get sore from sitting on both sides of this fence, but here's my two cents' worth:
I want to know how Uli did the treatment and I assume he's competent enough that the chances are low of the flower being cross pollinated by something else that is nevertheless compatible enough to produce viable seed.  (The risk is usually the other way around: you try to make a cross, think you got good seed, and then find out the flower was inadvertently selfed, either by your clumsy pollen daubing, or by a stray bug.)  Cross pollination is not very likely in many cases because you're growing it in a cool greenhouse away from the plant's natural pollinators.  Furthermore, if he tells me how he did it, I can try it and take my own precautions to avoid cross pollination.  If the method doesn't work, I have nothing to lose.
Let's remember that we ALL exchange tips and advice all the time, and none of us are speaking based on double-blind, rigorously controlled factorial experiments and analysis.  We say, "Here's what works for me - try it and see if it works for you..."
On the other hand, publishing the thing in our quarterly newsletter is a slightly different matter.  We all recognize that our little mailer isn't Applied Biotech Letters, but we still strive to make sure that what is published therein is as correct and rigorous as possible, esp. w/r/t taxonomy, habitat data, etc.  So a brief article presented as anecdotal results that others might like to try would seem OK to me, but if Uli could just put a few paragraphs in an email to the forum, that's probably the best way for now, and was really what I was asking for.  It has the further advantage of speed.  Many of us will have Hippeastrum species blooming soon.
I try to learn from the mistakes of others because I just don't have time to make them all myself (although sometimes it seems that I do).
Bob  E Tenn, sunny and 25 this morning

    On Monday, January 24, 2022, 10:28:57 PM EST, Tim Harvey via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:  
 
 Before publishing a "method", might it be wise to understand what the controls were and indeed, whether any viable seeds were produced and that they were not hybrids?

 T


  
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