A separate test tube must be used for each variety of
pollen to be experimented with. By following this procedure for several
days with all the staminate blooms that have been gathered, the
experimenter should have enough pollen for work on a small scale. The
test tubes containing this pollen should never be stoppered with corks,
but with plugs of absorbent cotton, which will allow the passage of air.
Pollen may be stored in this manner for several days, possibly as long
as two weeks, if it is kept dry. By a close observation of the blooming
period of the wild hazels, one is able to determine the best time for
placing the filbert pollen on the pistillate blossoms. No attempt should
be made to do so until the male catkins of the wild hazel species are so
entirely exhausted that no amount of shaking will release any grains of
pollen. When this condition exists, it is time to move the stored
filbert branches to strong sunlight. A quiet day should be chosen to
pollinize the hazels for two reasons. If there is a wind, it will blow
away the pollen and so make the work more difficult. A wind will also
increase the danger of the hazels being fertilized by native hazel
pollen which may still be circulating in the air and which the flowers
may prefer to filbert pollen.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196