How to Store Pollen
Pollen is used as a food source and as a nutritional supplement. In horticulture, pollen is collected and stored to cross-pollinate plants, to breed special characteristics. When storing pollen for use in food and horticulture, preparing the pollen for storage is an important part of keeping the pollen healthy and viable. Storing pollen is simple to do, but proper pollen storage requires that you first get some special preparation materials and drying tools. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Glass canning jar with lid
- Round-tip tweezers (no sharp edges)
- Small pair of scissors
- Thin dish cloth
- Color-indicating dessicant (silica drying pouches)
Instructions
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Position the glass jar under the bloom from which you wish to collect pollen.
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2
Clip the ball of pollen from the end of a tiny stemlike structure called the filament. Try to avoid making contact with the stigma, the tallest stem-like structure which collects pollen for making seeds. If clipping the anther--the ball of pollen in the flower--will damage the stigma, lightly scrape the pollen into the jar.
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Dry the pollen. If you have collected the entire anther of pollen, dump the jar of anthers on a thin dish cloth to dry.
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For loose pollen, use a color-indicating dessicant to dry the pollen. Place a dessicant unit in the bottom of the jar with the loose pollen. The dessicant is blue when it is dry and turns to pink when it has reached its capacity for moisture. When a dessicant will no longer change from blue to pink in the pollen mixture, the mixture is dry.
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Place your pollen in a glass jar with a tightly closing lid, and store it in the freezer until you are ready to use it.
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Tips & Warnings
Recently collected pollen can only be stored at room temperature for about two days before it begins to lose its potency.
