My idea that I am doing to store both seeds and pollen are the same. I collect the pollen and put it in pill bottles or film canisters. I then place those in a Mason jar, with a Silica package and seal the mason jar. I put the whole mason jar in the Crisper drawer on my refrigerator. I have already tested this method with my seeds and had really good success. Wondering how well it will work for the pollen. I do black out the jars so no light can get in them so there is no light and I regularly replace the Silica packets. I have easy access to nice silica packets, a friend works in a pharmacy and gets the super silica packets. Those are really nice to use but you can get them fairly cheap on amazon if you can't get ready access to them. Some pills have them in them too like IB Profin and things. Do you think the pollen will do ok in there? I have read a lot of people say it's good to have them vacu sealed in a fridge.
This method works for seeds and will keep seeds viable for a year or more. Storage of pollen for a few weeks will work in the fridge, but longer storage of pollen must be done in the freezer to keep the pollen viable. In either case the pollen must be completely dry before storing. Moisture is the biggest destroyer of pollen in storage. Pollen kept without refrigeration or freezing will only last 3-4 days. Refrigerated pollen will keep 3-4 weeks. Storage for more than a month must be done in the freezer. Do not use plastic bags to store pollen because they will allow air into the plastic bag. Stored pollen must be used immediately after removing from storage. PW
I have kept pollen for a few weeks but never tried it longer than that so don't know how long it will be viable for. I put mine in a film canister with flour and rice. flour to make it go further and rice to keep it dry. I keep it in the fridge. I have never put it in the freezer, I thought it would kill it. I'm collecting pollen at the moment so I'll try some in there I store my seeds 50 per small airtight bag with a pack of silica gel. these bags of 50 are kept in an air tight plastic tub and kept in the fridge. I have seeds in my fridge about 5-6 years old and they all germinate just fine
Yeah I am not really concerned with the seeds, I know that I got them in there pretty good and they should be good for a long time. My main concern in the pollen. I mean I don't want to keep it alive indefinitely or anything but a month or a couple months would be nice between strains. I only have the one area for growing so can be a little hard to figure out how I am going to get the breeding done that I want. I have heard a lot of people complain that freezing the pollen will damage it and make it not work too well. Yet I have also read about people freezing it and making it last as long as a year and still have success.
I'm guessing the difference between successful freezing and unsuccessful freezing is all about moisture
this last week or so I have been collecting pollen every other day, bagging it up with silica gel and storing some of them in the fridge and some of them in the freezer. just now hoping some will survive for a few weeks. it's amazing how much pollen they give off ...