Timing is Everything
Making a Cross-Pollination
The flowers on the lower right are opened, and too late to use as the mother in a cross (because already self-pollinated), but are right to collect pollen from. In the inflorescence in the middle, there is one flower in which the sepals have just begun to open, and is a prime candidate for crossing.
Here I’m about to dab the stigma of a flower I’ve emasculated (removed the anther cone from) into some of the pollen I’ve vibrated into a little container using a cheap electric toothbrush
Once a fruit is well on its way to forming, I put a teabag around it to keep track of it and keep it safe.
