@admmad

admmad said:

Any specific time period for the pollen to germinate is not really a constant. The pollen grains will not germinate until the stigma becomes receptive and produces stigmatic fluid. That means the pollen grains will not germinate quickly if the flower is pollinated before the pistil is receptive (before stigmatic fluid has been produced). For example, if the hybridizer wants to be absolutely certain that only the pollen they place on the stigma has a chance and they open the flower the day before it will be ready to open on its own (or earlier) and pollinate it then the pollen will probably not germinate for many hours.

If the required conditions were "perfect" or as near as they get to being perfect in a normal garden, how long would it take for pollen grains to germinate?

Pat236 said:@daylily99
If my husband I looked like those to purple flowers and the baby looked liked the yellow flower, I would have some "splaining" to do!

too funny

Seedfork said:if the required conditions were "perfect" or as near as they get to being perfect in a normal garden, how long would it take for pollen grains to germinate?

@seedfork
Do you mean how long would the pollen grains take to start to germinate after the stigma was receptive?

Arisumi found that if the style was cut-off near the ovary any time up to 10 hours after pollination that no seeds were produced.

blue23rose said:Wow, those are some odd outcomes. I thought getting out very early in the morning and doing cross-pollinations would mean that a bloom would not become bee pollinated. But I guess once, pollinated, it would have to be covered with something to keep that from happened.

Makes a body wonder how many registered daylilies have the wrong parentage listed.

If you are waiting everyday for pollen to get fluffy before doing crosses there is always a chance a bee could beat you to the cross. However if you save your pollen and do you crosses before any pollen is formed there is no way a bee can beat you because there is no other pollen around. The stigma does not have to be receptive to dab pollen on it. It can be put on at 7am and be waiting on the stigma to become receptive. Once your pollen is on it kind of caps off the stigma and stops any outside pollen. This is just another reason why I encourage everyone to save their pollen. Early morning crosses not only allow you to beat the bees but you also beat the heat

@ediblelandscapingsc
It is a good idea to pollinate early before the pistils are receptive and with pollen that is unlikely to have been contaminated by insect visits. Unfortunately that does not necessarily prevent the problem of insect pollinations.
Some insects visit flowers to eat or remove pollen. They do not necessarily only remove pollen from anthers - they can also remove pollen from stigmas. When insects visit flowers they can add pollen to the stigma even if there is already abundant pollen present.
Other factors
Pollen from different daylilies can have different pollen tube growth rates - foreign pollen deposited by an insect may grow faster than the hybridizer's pollen.
In some crosses daylily pollen tubes do not grow continuously to the ovary. They grow but stop before entering the ovary and wait sometimes for as long as 12 hours before growth restarts. That allows late growing pollen tubes from pollen deposited later (possibly by insects) to catch-up to early deposited pollen.