Viewing post #795541 by dellac

I found something of interest on the daylily forum, about collecting, freezing and using Hemerocallis pollen:

EdBurton said:I pick anther, and take it pollen side to cotton in tube, I brush off as much pollen as I can get.
Usually it takes all 6 anthers to saturate the top layer of the cotton.
I have been successful using 4 year old pollen stored this way.

If I am using fresh pollen for the day, I keep the anthers after brushing off pollen to freeze as there is always some that doesn't rub off to the cotton.

The tubes are easy to use in the yard.
Select pollen to use for the day, remove from freezer, let sit for 10 - 15 minutes, take tubes out to garden and use on whatever is desired, then throw back in freezer.

Eventually the fluid from the stigma over time will make pollen in tube useless, but that is after making dozens of
attempts setting pods.
You will be able to maximize pollen as you get familiar using the pollen from tubes.

This is a picture of the centrifuge tubes stuffed with pollen, tubes are 1.5 mil, cheapest I could find on the web.
I take a piece of masking tape and wrap it around tube, I will write down the ID of pollen plant on tape.

From those with experience, could it be possible that lily pollen would still be viable after multiple freezings and thawings? I just assumed it would rapidly spoil after one defrosting, but that's based on chicken legs rather than any experience or knowledge of pollen viability.

EdBurton also related experience having success posting pollen during winter, while summer temperatures destroyed viability. Seems transferable to lily pollen too, for those that try. If frozen pollen can be sent during winter then refrozen by the recipient until summer, then makes swapping a more successful option for hybridists. Wanting to swap pollen between northern and southern hemispheres though, still has temperature drawbacks either way.

Which month has lowest temperatures in common for both Aust and North America?

I might be a bit slow - I just tried sending fresh pollen. Shipping frozen pollen has probably already been the norm for ages!