Sandy, I gathered my pollen really early this morning. A lot of it wasn't even showing any, nota, none, pollen on the anters and I wanted to know if it would open. It did, really good. I just take the anther, none of the stem(or whatever it is) it's attached to and I was amazed that it all dried in the house where it was cooler. I put most of it in the freezer and what I will use tomorrow is waiting in the fridge. I have found that if I'm going to use the pollen the next day, I can just put it in the fridge, not the freezer. Also, this could get ify here, for the first few weeks when it was still rather cool here, I just left my pollen on the table over night and used it the next day. I was getting around 50% pod set and that's really good for me. I don't know how well others do???? If I didn't use it, I threw it away. I was afraid it wouldn't keep til the next day.
If you can, gather the pollen before you go to work. It'll be ready for you to use the next morning before work. I do know that the later you make your crosses, the less likely they will take. Of course, some pollen sets anytime, some doesn't.
