My name is Ian, and the past couple of years I've been hybridizing like crazy. I'm asking this question hoping to find new solutions for pollen freezing. In the past I've saved pollen in little plastic baggies, or sometimes sandwich baggies if I have tons of pollen. But sometimes dealing with soggy stigmas after thaw isn't so pleasant. 🙁 Yes, I've used little tubes for pollen freezing and they can sometimes take up space with the cartons that hold the little tubes. I want to be efficient with space for pollen and so I'm sticking with the baggies.
If I store them in sandwich baggies like in the picture below, I thought they could be dried out for a day or two, then wrapped in a napkin or paper towel to absorb extra moisture? Or are there other solutions?
I pry off flowers and their petals with a little bit of stem leftover to use as a handle for easier or delicate pollination, especially with irises. I picked 3 iris flowers for each stamen of 1 singular iris flower as you see in the image above. I believe I can use the
pollen in the pic at least twice and dispose it in the compost pile.