Some simple plant breeding techniques that deserve to be better known.
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This was a really interesting article!
It made me wonder if MSG could be used to increase fertility for garlic. Have you seen any trials to that effect?
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I am very interested in this information. I can tell Iâm going to be drawn towards methodologies like this once Iâm a bit more confident in my basic crossing and breeding techniques.
A basic Google search finds me no further info about the âcement methodâ. Also, the pic was AI generated. I rather think the rest of the article was as well. I may be paranoid, but me nose doth twitch to the smell of fakery. Also: âApply a tiny of bit of cement powder to the stigma 30 minutes prior to the distant pollenâ doesnât make grammatical (much less practical) sense. But itâs just close enough to fool the casual glance, which is all that AI is capable of. So far.
HI Jessica,
I wrote the article. There is no AI in it except the image. But then maybe Iâm a bot ?
Joking aside, I linked the original thread for the cement method. Hereâs another one: https://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46472
Regarding the âapply a tiny bit of cement prior to the distant pollenâ it means just that. First apply cement, wait a bit, then apply the pollen (which is distant or else you wouldnât need the cement).
I think if you take a look at the rest of the articles I wrote its pretty obvious to see that theyâre original, if for no other reason than no one else writes about this stuff, which is why I started to post them.
Prior to applying pollen, use cement powder 30 minutes in advance.
Youâre stimulating the plant to ready it for pollination. Plant foreplay. 
By itself, an odd phraseology is not concerning. But I also could not find any corroborating evidence that this is a method that even a small number of people are trying. Not being in any sense a scientist, I am frankly not qualified to even attempt to parse this bit:
" Now heres some additional info: Usually, there is only very few seed to be harvested but it works and the seeds are usually viable. The reason why this works is that cement consists of highly basic calciumsillicates that tremendeously raise the ph of the flower. Because there also are aminoclusters on a pollencorn that are also responsible for raising the ph, the cement has the very same effect. Because of his highly basic potential, cement is even way more effective. Basic niveau reduces the ability of the flower to abort the pollen so it accepts it."
Which means I have nothing to go on when I ask myself âIs there any reason to believe this is a viable method?â Moreover, it should be pointed out that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES is cement dust anything you want near your lungs. Even in tiny amounts. So, yeah, Iâm at least going to wait until I hear a few more anecdotes before I even consider this method as worth trying.
I imagine I fit into one of the intended audiences for this piece:
I already am making some manual crosses, including for the sake of curiousity an occassional attempt at a wide interspecies or intergeneric cross.
I already have MSG and cementious powders on site. For me there is not too much burden to trying this out, especially if other people on forums where Iâm active were posting that they are trying it.
I am not sure I have time to keep track of any more crosses at the moment. But since I already spent a certain amount of my time in potentially frivolous pursuits like trying to pollinate wild Curcubita pepo with domesticated C. ficifolia pollen or pollinate Hibiscus moscheutos with domestic okra this year.
For someone in my situation, why not add cement powder to the ficifolia or okra pollen bags? I can understand the hypothesis that cement mimics pH-raising characteristics of aminoclusters on pollen.
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The people who reported success with the cement method (or other high pH powder) are 10 separate individuals, and there is another thread I didnât look up which would bump that number up. There is zero pressure for you or anyone to try this method, but I wanted people to know that I wouldnât have put this method in the article if there wasnât some basis for its use. For people interested in wide crossing, its potentially very helpful information.