Collecting pollen from Wekiwa tangelo flower.
Ever since John Panzarella told me the story of how he tried to breed a pink lemonade fruit by crossing a Ruby Red grapefruit and an Ujukitsu, I've wanted to try to make a controlled cross of my own. I've planted several open pollinated seeds, but until now I've never tried contolled pollination. It turns out its much more difficult than I thought. Almost all of my citrus trees are blooming right now, so I thought this weekend would be the perfect time to try it. First, I needed to select a pollen donor and a seed parent. Not all citrus produce hybrids, so my choice of potential seed parents was limited to those varieties I have that produce monoembryonic, zygotic seeds: Pummelos, Meyer Lemon, and Ujukitsu. I've never been impressed with pummelo hybrids (like Oro Blanco), and I didn't want a sour fruit, so I chose the Ujukitsu, aka the "lemonade fruit".
For the pollen donor, I could use any citrus variety that was currently in bloom. I decided to use the Wekiwa tangelo because it is very delicious, is a complex hybrid itself (grapefruit x Sampson tangelo), and under the right conditions has pink flesh. Who knows? Maybe a Wekiwa x Ujukitsu hybrid would produce the pink lemonade fruit John was trying for? Even if it didn't, they're both delicious fruits, and so I would hope a cross would also be tasty. I found a sharp pair of tweezers, a small mason jar, and got to work collecting pollen from the Wekiwa's flowers. I couldn't shake or disloge the pollen easily, so I just used the tweezers to remove the stamen and anthers and drop them in the jar. I collected the pollen from a total of four or five flowers, and then headed over to the Ujukitsu.
I picked out a nice set of the Ujukitsu's flowers to try to pollinate, removed all the nearby unopened buds, and tried to emasculate the flowers so that they wouldn't pollinate themselves. This proved to be very difficult. The stamens hold the pollen so that it faces the flower's stigma, and the surfaces of both are sticky. Every time I would try to remove the stamen with the tweezers, I would accidentally cause some Ujukitsu pollen to stick to the pistil! After the second flower I gave up. I borrowed one of Dr. Wife's paintbrushes and used it to liberally apply Wekiwa pollen to the Ujukitsu stigmas. Once I was finished, I covered the flowers with a mesh bag to prevent any further pollination by insects. Hopefully these flowers will set fruit this year, and will produce some hybrid seeds. The flowers could have been pollinated by me using the Wekiwa pollen, or been self pollinated. I'll need to plant several seeds, let them grow for a little while, and look for any signs of a hybrid plant, such as unusual leaf shape.
For the pollen donor, I could use any citrus variety that was currently in bloom. I decided to use the Wekiwa tangelo because it is very delicious, is a complex hybrid itself (grapefruit x Sampson tangelo), and under the right conditions has pink flesh. Who knows? Maybe a Wekiwa x Ujukitsu hybrid would produce the pink lemonade fruit John was trying for? Even if it didn't, they're both delicious fruits, and so I would hope a cross would also be tasty. I found a sharp pair of tweezers, a small mason jar, and got to work collecting pollen from the Wekiwa's flowers. I couldn't shake or disloge the pollen easily, so I just used the tweezers to remove the stamen and anthers and drop them in the jar. I collected the pollen from a total of four or five flowers, and then headed over to the Ujukitsu.
I picked out a nice set of the Ujukitsu's flowers to try to pollinate, removed all the nearby unopened buds, and tried to emasculate the flowers so that they wouldn't pollinate themselves. This proved to be very difficult. The stamens hold the pollen so that it faces the flower's stigma, and the surfaces of both are sticky. Every time I would try to remove the stamen with the tweezers, I would accidentally cause some Ujukitsu pollen to stick to the pistil! After the second flower I gave up. I borrowed one of Dr. Wife's paintbrushes and used it to liberally apply Wekiwa pollen to the Ujukitsu stigmas. Once I was finished, I covered the flowers with a mesh bag to prevent any further pollination by insects. Hopefully these flowers will set fruit this year, and will produce some hybrid seeds. The flowers could have been pollinated by me using the Wekiwa pollen, or been self pollinated. I'll need to plant several seeds, let them grow for a little while, and look for any signs of a hybrid plant, such as unusual leaf shape.
Wekiwa tangelo stamen and pollen.
Paint brush covered with pollen.
Pollinating Ujukitsu flowers.
Bagged to keep out other pollinating insects.
Mystery citrus seedling growing under the play fort.
