Re: Manual banana pollination (basjoo mainly) and how to do it
Jack, I can't post copyrighted material here or send it to you by e-mail without permission from publishers.
However, here is a general summary of a pollination porcess used by some banana breeders:
Pollen is collected around 7:30 a.m. from male flowers previously covered with cotton bags at anthesis. This is done to prevent pollen contamination with other sources (due to insect, bat or other animals). Emerging female inflorescences are bagged with transparent plastic to avoid potential natural crossing with alien pollen. Hand pollinations are performed daily between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. in freshly exposed female flowers by rubbing a cluster of male flowers onto the female flowers. Pollinated bunches are labeled with tags to indicate parents and pollination date.
All that you really have to do is to identify the male and female flowers and then act at the right time.
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