If you're wanting to bring a color or pattern from a dwarf or median iris into a TB, or vice versa, is chromosome numbers something you have to know before crossing?

I am still only halfway through 'A World of Iris', but this is what I found out Neal. Dwarves and TBs are fertile. Intermediates have sterile pollen that doesn't undergo mitosis correctly (there are lags). It took awhile to find this out because the pollen looks fine to the visible eye. The IBs are partially fertile with SDBs as TBs, but not with IBs. Offspring of IBs can separate normal traits like it can produce SDB offspring that bloom during TB season etc. Mid-America's new SDBs are the result of TB pollen introducing the modern TB traits to the dwarves.

That made my head hurt.

Niki

Thanks Nikki! That explains why the couple of crosses I attempted this spring were duds, they were IBs crossed with each other.

Has anyone read or own 'Iris culture and hybridizing for everyone'? By Wilma L. Vallette, published in '65. Just wondering this vs World of Irises.

@HighDesertNiki how is the A World of iris? I need something to read and may order today.

Storing pollen over winter, I need??
Silica Gel packs, Mason jar, Glassine envelopes, freezer of course ? What size packs are recommended. I see 1gr. 2gr.

I would prefer an updated book Gabe, but it is very detailed.

Iris Culture etc mainly is of interest to hybridizers while World of Iris covers more topics. A bookseller at the Portland AIS convention had a clean copy of the Vallete book for $90/ My copy has notes etc in it provided by the former owner. Of course there should be up dating on both books, but who to do it? World of Irises had different subjects assigned to different people, while Wilma Vallette work on information from different paper round robin letters which no longer exist except for median people.

Just a little information on IB's that I've found out. I have gotten IB X IB to take. But I'm not sure which one was the daddy (didn't mark my Crosses). I was just trying pollen from IB's next to this and that. IB this and that will take pollen. It's pod fertile, not pollen.

That means I have a pollen fertile IB somewhere. I have 2 seedlings from this cross. Now this and that also enjoys pollen from TB's too. I have seeds from two crosses this year, deecadence and ziggy. Don't rule out IB's just yet.

I believe Paul black's tet. MTB silver ice has IB in the parentage. So IB's can be a good stepping stone to try something new. So just keep trying the IB's to see what we can find works. Try pollen from TB's, SDB, tet Mtb and other IB's. We should start a list with IB fertility. And we never know what may pop up in the seedlings!

Carriwitched (IB) has fertile pollen, but not pod fertile.

I found this on the Hibiscus forum:

Xeramtheum said:In my attempts to pollinate Albuca spiralis with no success, I finally found information about pollinating the A. spiralis which called for microwaving pollen and mixing it with fresh pollen. I tried that with the A. spiralis and it worked!!! I got a seed pod!

Further research of microwaving pollen yielded sparse results but what I did find was interesting ... especially a bit that said microwaving pollen may overcome self sterility bye changing the polysaccharides some how!

Here is a link to pretty much all the information I found - under "microwaving pollen"

http://www.pacificbulbsociety....

Nhu Nguyen's post has the best information (below) - but read all of the entries if you're interested.

microwaving pollen
Nhu Nguyen (Mon, 15 Feb 2016 10:11:33 PST)

Hi Uli,

Yes, you are right. With more accurate description, it would be most useful
to different people. I have an old model that is 400 Watts. Power at 400
watts and 15-20 seconds is what I typically use. If you have more powerful
models, you can scale it down. According to what I can find on the
internet, the scaling is linear.

For example, if you have a 1000 Watt machine, my output would be 40% as
powerful as yours. You should reduce the power on your machine to the 40%
power setting. Alternatively, you can reduce cooking time to 6-8 seconds at
100% power.

David mentioned that perhaps drying is a cause. I don't think that is the
case since air drying of pollen doesn't help to bypass
self-incompatibility. You'd need some really fancy machines or some
chemical reactions to see if the polysaccharides have changed - we need a
chemist. Jim Shields, where are you?

I searched around a little bit and it appears that microwaves are often
used to solubilize polysaccharides or cause change in structure of highly
branched polysaccharide molecules. So it appears that my hypothesis of
microwaves changing the polysaccharides that causes self-incompatibility
may hold some water.
Nhu

On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 1:58 AM, Johannes Ulrich Urban <
[email protected]> wrote:

What is half strength in a microwave? Can you give the setting in Watt?
With an indication in Watt the energy applied would be clear, then the
length of exposure to that energy can be dealt with separately. I would
guess that both the level of energy exposure and its length do matter.

Here is more information:

Xeramtheum said:I'm thrilled to announce that I have a seed pod on Midnight Marvel due to microwaving the pollen. I did two flowers and only one took. As some of you know there are a few hardy hibiscus that are not self fertile and MM is one of them. I had great results with microwaving pollen on another plant that is not self fertile, Albuca spiralis so I decided to try it on MM and I'll definitely be trying this on other plants that are not self fertile.

I don't understand how microwaving pollen from plants that are not self fertile works, but it know it works from experience.

Here is the method - you need a microwave that allows you to adjust the wattage.

Collect pollen from the flower you want to pollinate and put it in a small container suitable for a microwave. Adjust the wattage down to 400 watts and microwave the pollen for about 15 seconds.

Add fresh pollen from the plant, mix it with the microwaved pollen and hand pollinate your flower. You'll know in about a week whether or not it took.

I'd really love for others to try this method on other non-self fertile hibiscus like Plum Crazy.

Wow! Some people are so creative and innovative. I would never have thought about microwaving pollen.

Intruiging. I wonder if that would work for other genera that are self-sterile. I also wonder what sort of mutations it would introduce!

I think it would be worth a try. Nothing to lose by trying.

Most interesting!

What are the odds of these little ones germinating vs the bigger kids? From the same pod of
16169:
Powerpuff Girl × (Just Witchery × Brouhaha)

My guess: The little ones are un(der)developed and will not germinate?

But I am no expert on iris seeds...

Pretty close to zero, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything to put them in a pot with the others.