Hi Gonzer I wont post any piccies as there is no need, All my tools consist of a small pair of needle point tweezers (stainless steel) a handheld magnifier ,a jewelers magnifier 10 X ,tooth picks ,several scalpels ,and a pair of embroidery scissors ,and thats it ,very basic, cheap and durable ,no paint brushes ! cheers , Jack

I do use a small, stiff paint brush to spread out wet seeds to dry.

I do at least 90% of the work with just a curved-tip tweezer/forceps, Gonz. I've already shown pics of that in action on some of the pollination threads. I like the curved tip much better than a straight tip, as you can see what you're doing better and it doesn't mash the anther. I don't know where you get those, though. I just happened to find mine in an old dissecting kit left over from college.

I also picked up a used dental tool in a second hand store which has proved useful for holding stamens out of the way or scraping and applying pollen. One end is a sharp curved pick and the other end is a tiny hoe-shaped scraper. I've never used a hand lens, just the same cheapo magnifying glasses that I use for reading, available at drug stores everywhere.

I did recently purchase a little stiff-bristled paint brush, just because I thought it might work better at picking up and applying pollen that had been frozen in foil packets. So far, though, I have yet to use it. I don't really like brushes because they're a lot harder to get clean than metal tools, which increases your odds of transferring unwanted pollen grains.

Lisa, how do you deploy your frozen pollen? I usually just freeze the entire anther but sometimes they are all broken up and are difficult to use. A few times I did just cut a short piece of drinking straw and place that over the stigma and then carefully scrape the previously frozen pollen material into the straw with a flat toothpick. That has worked but it's a pain.

Yeah, the whole freezing business is kind of a pain, Nick, which is why I don't do it very often. I scrape the pollen off the anthers onto the foil if I'm going to freeze it. It works better that way. I cut a bunch of pieces about 4" square and fold them up into individual packets so that I don't have to defrost them all, just pull one out of the bag and use it each day. It's real easy with Bills and Vrieseas that have long stamens-- you can just use the edge of the foil to scrape off the pollen without even removing the stamens from the plant. With Neos, though, you have to take them off and then use some sort of tool to scrape them. That's where my little dental tool comes in handy, but a toothpick would probably work too.

Applying it is the same deal, i.e. much easier with genera that have their parts fully exposed. You can just rub the open foil packet against the ripe stigma of a Bill and the pollen will stick. In addition, Bill pollen is bright orange, so you can really SEE that it's sticking. With Neos you have to pick it up off the foil and get it down into the throat of the flower, and that's where I figured an artist's brush would come in handy. I wouldn't use it for anything else, though.

BTW, all brushes are not created equal. Only natural animal hairs have tiny scales or bristles on them that pollen and other substances can cling to. Synthetics are smooth, although I imagine a certain amount of pollen would adhere to them too, the same as it does to a metal tool. Maybe it doesn't matter, but I had to really look to find a non-synthetic brush that was small enough but also firm enough to do the job (and not too expensive). I finally got a pig bristle one for a couple of bucks.

I usually paint 'em yellow for obvious reasons. The orange Bahco pruners are THE best and I highly recommend the azalea style bonsai shears, sharper'n you can imagine and great for delicate clips.

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I also use a mini Maglite LED flashlight in 2D size to look for an inflorescence in dark cups. They are so slim that one could almost push them down the throat of a Bill. I sometimes also use it instead of the built-in flash of my digital camera to take alternative shots because I had the impression that the cooler led colors produce pictures with colors more true to self, less skewed towards warmer tones.

I recently purchased one of those pump up spray bottles - it was cheap and works a treat for misting down plants.

Gonzer, that is a good idea about painting your gardening tools yellow, I've lost a pair of expensive secutars - I suspect that I may have thrown them out with some rubbish.

Rick

I've been trying to stop myself from posting this, but have finally succumbed. When I showed each of these to my brom-mad mate he was just over the moon with sheer delight at the clear proof of my deterioration into abject lunacy. Hard to argue, really. Here they are, but you have to guess what they are ....

Exhibit 1
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Exhibit 2
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Paul,

I think this is just the crazy obsessive traits that Gonzer was looking for. My guess:

1. former for making pot hangers and
2. strainer to stop the seeds going down the drain.

Rick

Hi Rick,

Sorry no cigar but hey, great ideas! Hadn't thought of them. Now, let me think ......

Paul, might that little green, round building in the first picture be restaurant, tempting snails to go out for one last, fatal dinner? I'd also be tempted to go out for a snack if I can have a view of that Shelldance - very nice!

Japie

Japie, still no cigar, but another great idea! I certainly could put some snail pellets around the platform at the bottom of it, but if I put them inside they would just fall straight through and out the bottom.

Re the 'Shelldance', I got it as a pup from a mate a few months ago and it certainly is shaping up very nicely. I suspect that I've accidentally found a spot for it that it really likes. Wish I could do that with everything!

Cheers, Paul

Paul, isn't it time for your medication?
Seriously, I am totally clueless.

O.K. Paul - might that pukey-snot-green, polystyrene representation of a little, round, windowless house be some kind of incubator for germinating seedlings? The chimney looks like it might be a thermometer...

As for the second contraption - umm...is it a gadget designed to dispense slow-release fert pellets around the base of hard-to-reach broms??

Gotta love your ingenuity, whatever they are! But boy, do you have "the brombles" bad!

K (ROTFLMFAO)

Looks like a device to dispence Florel or a similar product

Oh come on guys, its obvious! It a house for the garden bromeliad fairies! The the bottle cap with netting is to catch the bad ones! Ha ha. I have no idea. Something to put around a tall, narrow plant for temp insulation and a cap to keep it dry??? Ok, that's the best guess I can make.
-andy

Oh please... it couldn't be more obvious to a fellow lunatic. Those are both makeshift hydroponic devices designed to suspend pups over water and let their roots dangle down into it!

"Why?" you ask? Umm, well... that's a good question.

More great ideas! Kerry, you almost had it with the green thing and Andy, you almost got it as well, but now I realise that one is actually a bit off-subject so I'm giving it away. Here it is.

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Following Andy's words, it is actually something to put around something tall and narrow for temp insulation, but the tall, narrow thing is a max-min thermometer. It is open top and bottom for free air circulation with the "roof" to keep the sun out, so I get a reading of ambient air temp that isn't affected by direct heat from the sun. I made up a few of them to put in different places in the shade house and around the yard to see what the temperature is doing. Given the bottled medication consumed during their manufacture they seem to do a remarkably good job, except that the temperature markers in the el cheapo max-min thermometers in most of them keep getting stuck, which renders them pretty useless. Bummer! I hope I can find some good ones (our major harware chain has flooded the market with crap), otherwise I have all of these neat little green houses that don't work.

As for the one with the screw cap and netting, it is right on-subject and I'm not giving it away yet except to say that Andy, again you were getting very close. You must be as mad as I am. And Lisa, how about some pictures? My fevered imagination is running riot.

Cheers, Paul

Crazy stuff you hybridizers get up to...

So would the screw on bottle lid thingy be something to isolate the flower once you have had you nasty way with it (So as the birds and bees cannot do their natural thang) and also to capture seed?

Ok, the cap with netting: contraption to scoop out snails or other junk in the cups?
And I (try to) deny ALL charges of lunacy...
-andy

Shane the bromaholic, you get the cigar! Andy, it is in fact a device to keep the bad fairies out, not to catch them.

Bad fairy exclusion device for foliage Vrieseas
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The idea is to slip the sock bit over the flower late in the afternoon before it starts opening, then come back in the middle of the night when the flower is open, unscrew the cap and do the business, put the cap back on, then slide the whole thing off again in the morning after the flower has closed.

Neat huh? The only plant I've had to try it on so far is that big white 'Snows of Mauna Kea F2' of my mate's that I posted on a while back - the one where the flowers would not open properly and the anthers did not mature. The device was given its initiation on the third flower, which was the first one to not open at all. My mate reckoned that was simply because the plant was too embarrassed, and I probably would have agreed if the same thing didn't start happening on a nearby fosteriana, which I didn't touch. I swear I didn't!

So, I really don't have a clue whether it works or not, but I'm going to keep trying. Just waiting for the next foliage Vriesea to come into flower. Hahahahaha ....

Cheers, Paul

Very inventive Paul.I like the way your mind works.
Good work Shane. Your mind works in mysterious ways as well.I didnt have a clue.
Cheers Fran

I will share the cigar with Andy; he gave me the clue really.

Okay Paul, I managed to keep a straight face until you got to the part about unscrewing the cap, doing your business and then screwing it back on. I don't know why but that just cracked me up! Do you also have a miner's helmet with a light so you can see what sort of business you're doing?

Of cause he would, he needs 2 hands to do his business.

Hi Lisa, you are as usual absolutely correct. And sunshine, so are you. I do in fact have a miner's light (several), and yes, they have been involved. I just realised that this could explain a great deal. (NB I am neither miner nor lumberjack). Cheers, Paul

Let's keep it clean now folks!