I’ve started making deliberate crosses. Unhindered by too much knowledge i packed a primitive kit to do the do and mark the victims of my dithering. It contains of reading glasses, a few ear cotton buds a pencil, paper and tape to mark where i did what.
I always had hope people that live in cities have more time to do these, but i don’t wait no longer.
Anybody do these deliberate crosses? What are your tips, do’s and don’t’s
If you use the little disposable make-up applicator brushes they work better than the cotton swabs. They pick up the pollen but they don’t trap it like the cotton.
You can also get them with black tips which makes it easier to see the pollen. And they are available pretty cheap in bulk.
Like these:
This is great advice, I steal my wife’s makeup brush during that time of year 
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Or use a dead honeybee glued to a toothpick. Well adapted to pick up pollen and plastic free. (Your local friendly beekeeper can supply you with dead bees–there is a steady supply at hive entrances.)
Assuming you mean for things like tomatoes where you need to shake out/scrape pollen and move it, and not like squash where you can just take the male flower to the female flower.
I’m new to hand pollinating but… I have some fine paint brushes that I’m going to be trying. For tomatoes I’m going to try the anther cone method, I believe Reed and William talked about it on OSSI forum. Where you slice the anther cone from the flower and place it over the emasculated flower.
The real problems are when the flowers are not adapted for bee pollination.
Those hummingbirds are hard to catch!
