4Aroids Encyclopedia
The Most Common Mistakes in Anthurium crossing
We all started somewhere, and we all made mistakes and hopefully learned from them. Someone gave us tips, or we did a lot of research ourselves. To help you out a bit, we've put together a list of the most common mistakes that we've probably all made at some point.
1. Error during pollen collection
- The collected pollen is stored moist and can therefore mold. Silica sachets, for example, help by absorbing the moisture.
- You don't label your pollen. This ultimately leads to so-called NoIDs, as it is not clear who the pollen donor is.
- You store the pollen too warm and it loses its viability. You can store anthurium pollen in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. In the freezer, anthurium pollen can last several months.
- You have thawed and refrozen your anthurium pollen several times. This makes it unusable.
Solutions: - Always let your pollen dry for a short time.
- Store your pollen airtight and, if necessary, with silica bags.
- Always label your collected pollen with the name and date you collected it.
- Always collect more pollen than necessary. You never know what you might need it for.
2. Errors in Pollination
- You used too little pollen, causing a bloom to produce few berries. This isn't a real error, but you could harvest more berries if you had pollinated the bloom with enough pollen.
- The ambient humidity is too low.
- Your mother plant is not receiving enough additional energy to cover the extra effort for berry production.
Solutions: - Use more pollen to pollinate the entire bloom and thus get more berries.
- Feed your mother plant some extra energy. A little more PK usually works wonders here.
3. Berry errors
- You have harvested unripe berries and the seeds are not really ripe yet.
- You left the harvested berries for too long and they started to mold.
- You let the seeds dry out.
- You buried the harvested seeds in your substrate.
- The substrate used is too wet, which can cause your seeds to rot.
- The ambient temperature is too low and the humidity is too low.
Solutions: - Only harvest ripe berries that can be easily picked from the cob or have already fallen off.
- Process your berries or seeds immediately and do not leave them lying around carelessly.
- Anthurium seeds are light germinators and should not be buried.
- Ensure an optimal environment for your seeds so that they can develop quickly and well.
4. common beginner mistakes
- You haven't labeled your pollinated flower or the container with your harvested seeds.
- Note down the mother and father plants and, if applicable, the date.
- You are cross-pollinating too many at once and losing track of what was crossed with whom and what is in which container.
- You are too impatient. Berry production takes time. And even after that, the seedlings need time to develop.
- They also need light and a good ambient temperature.
- You haven't paid attention to hygiene and one or more batches are molding.
- The collected pollen is stored moist and can therefore mold. Silica sachets, for example, help by absorbing the moisture.
- You don't label your pollen. This ultimately leads to so-called NoIDs, as it is not clear who the pollen donor is.
- You store the pollen too warm and it loses its viability. You can store anthurium pollen in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. In the freezer, anthurium pollen can last several months.
- You have thawed and refrozen your anthurium pollen several times. This makes it unusable.
Solutions: - Always let your pollen dry for a short time.
- Store your pollen airtight and, if necessary, with silica bags.
- Always label your collected pollen with the name and date you collected it.
- Always collect more pollen than necessary. You never know what you might need it for.
- You used too little pollen, causing a bloom to produce few berries. This isn't a real error, but you could harvest more berries if you had pollinated the bloom with enough pollen.
- The ambient humidity is too low.
- Your mother plant is not receiving enough additional energy to cover the extra effort for berry production.
Solutions: - Use more pollen to pollinate the entire bloom and thus get more berries.
- Feed your mother plant some extra energy. A little more PK usually works wonders here.
- You have harvested unripe berries and the seeds are not really ripe yet.
- You left the harvested berries for too long and they started to mold.
- You let the seeds dry out.
- You buried the harvested seeds in your substrate.
- The substrate used is too wet, which can cause your seeds to rot.
- The ambient temperature is too low and the humidity is too low.
Solutions: - Only harvest ripe berries that can be easily picked from the cob or have already fallen off.
- Process your berries or seeds immediately and do not leave them lying around carelessly.
- Anthurium seeds are light germinators and should not be buried.
- Ensure an optimal environment for your seeds so that they can develop quickly and well.
- You haven't labeled your pollinated flower or the container with your harvested seeds.
- Note down the mother and father plants and, if applicable, the date.
- You are cross-pollinating too many at once and losing track of what was crossed with whom and what is in which container.
- You are too impatient. Berry production takes time. And even after that, the seedlings need time to develop.
- They also need light and a good ambient temperature.
- You haven't paid attention to hygiene and one or more batches are molding.
Important
Don't let it faze you and don't doubt yourself if a cross doesn't work out. There can be many reasons for this, and it doesn't necessarily have to be your fault. Plants are living beings and have their own rhythm. Everyone has had pollinated flowers dry up. Everyone has had a flower get moldy. Even the most experienced breeders experience setbacks and don't have 100% success.
The most important thing: you have to enjoy it.
help the community
If you have found a mistake or would like to add something, please feel free to write to us. We appreciate your feedback and it will benefit the community.