I will answer in this post
1. This is up for debate. Some say once pollen is thawed it should not be returned to the freezer, but instead placed in the fridge and used within a week. I disagree with this since I have thawed and refrozen pollen sometimes on a daily basis and it remains good. I have pollen from last year that I have used this year and it's good. I have had pollen outside for up to an hour before returning back to the freezer. I take all frozen pollen I plan to use outside at one time so I don't have to keep running in and out. I don't really know what time frame it starts to deteriorate if left outside for a long period of time. Maybe Fred or Lyle will know since both freeze pollen or anyone who may freeze it.
2.YES the pollen will still be viable. The anthers will continue to open even when removed from the filament. I do it that way quite often because I may take just one stamen off and put it in the sun for the anther to open fully and then put the rest in a container to open and dry inside. Now if you put it in the fridge unopened it will remain unopened until it warms up (I have no idea how long it can stay in the fridge that way). Some hybridizers put the whole bloom in the fridge say for the next day and once warmed and the anthers open it's like having a fresh bloom.
3. Yes, let the vial warm before opening it or it can condensate inside and ruin the pollen.
4. Yes you can hold the vial in your hand to warm it if you'd like, I don't see why it wouldn't be ok. The still closed vial may sweat when taken out of the freezer period, it doesn't matter if it's inside or outside, it can sweat. It ONLY sweats on the outside of the vial as long as it is not opened. If you get out 25 vials of pollen at one time you are doing some serious pollenating
I would open the vials outside after they have thawed (inside or outside) IMHO. There is no reason you need to open them inside unless you really want to. Just open them as you need them, not all at once. Yes you can carry them outside immediately, but CLOSED since they may not be thawed if you go right outside after taking them from the freezer. The time frame it takes for pollen to thaw varies depending on the temperature it's in. I take mine outside and it's thawed in no time flat; some say 5 mins to 20 mins to thaw, but I seriously doubt it takes 20 min to thaw (maybe 20 min to get to room temp if it's really cool).
I would keep all pollen closed until right when you plan to use it to keep from say another vial falling over or you dropping it and that pollen getting into the other vials. Or any other possible thing that could get into the pollen with them being open or knocking them over and spilling it all.
5. I DO NOT reuse the dixie cups. They are cheap enough for me not to plus mine are not the washable kind. Now if you buy the plastic ones you could wash them if you want to (it would save $$$ if you plan on collecting a lot of pollen every day) I don't collect pollen every day because I ended up with wayyyyyy too many vials of the same pollen last year. I collect enough to have in case I don't have a fresh bloom open. If you only blow it out or wipe it out there is still going to be pollen in it that you don't see and that will get mixed in with the next pollen you collect (and it may n ot be the same pollen as before)
I do wash the vials out with one of those little brushes they make to clean the small opening in the hummingbird feeders.
Hope this isn't too confusing. I learned about collecting the pollen by googling it ( and there are so many ways to do it) and them Fred showed me how he did it with the vials. James uses the matchboxes and puts some in the fridge and some in the freezer.
