Cross-pollinate?

i am not sure how to cross-pollinate flowers. The only thing I know is the anthers have the pollen and it goes into the female part of the flower. How do I know if it is "pregnant?" How long does it take to make that flower?

Cross-pollinate?
Hand pollination (also called "mechanical pollination") is a technique used when natural, or open pollination is insufficient or undesirable.



The most common techniques are for crops such as cucurbits, which may exhibit poor pollination by fruit abortion, fruit deformity or poor maturation.



Hand pollination is only an option on a small scale, but is a common technique by gardeners who transfer pollen with an artist brush or cotton swab.



Sometimes the corolla is removed from male flowers and the flower itself is brushed against the stigmas of female flowers.



Hand pollination can be the simple act of shaking, with tomatoes and other self fertile flowers.



Tomatoes grown in greenhouses generally need aid in pollination, and this has been done by hand or with an electric vibrator for a long time.



Recently it has been mostly supplanted by cultured bumblebees.



When pollination is needed on a large scale, such as for field crops, orchards or commercial seed production, honeybees or other pollinators are cultured and provided for pollination management.



The primary reason for hand pollination is lack of pollinators which may be due to crops being moved from home areas (as in vanilla beans) without also taking the natural pollinator. Pollinator decline or the concentrated pollination needs of monoculture may also be factors in pollination shortage.



Another reason for hand pollination is in order to control the parents of the seed to be produced. For example, all F1 hybrids are the result of pollenating one specific variety with another specific variety, in order to produce a uniform crop.



For pest prevention with some high-value crops, row covers of mesh are used to prevent pest insects from access to the plants. However, this may necessate hand pollination when bloom starts.



Hand pollination is used with date palms to avoid wasting a lot of space and energy growing sufficient male plants for adequate natural pollination.
Reply:If the male and female flowers are separated: collect the yellow pollen (Q.Tip, small paper bag) and place it on the female part.

If the organs are in one flower you have to cover the female part or cut it away, collect the pollen and transfer it on the female organ of an other plant. Plant 2 should have the male anthers cut before the pollen is ripe. In this way self pollination is prevented. The tools for pollination depends on the size of the flowers and organs, eg for maize its pretty easy cause they are large plants.

Fertilization is successful if the female parts starts swelling while the flower degenerates, earlier there is now way, if you don't want to make sections and histological analysis, sorry.
Reply:I guess get a tiny brush or a cotton swab and rub the sex parts of one flower and then rub the other flower.



It depends on the flower as to how you know it's been pollinated successfully. Sometimes they change color, but usually they close up, dry up, or fall off. Then, generally, the ovaries will swell and start to form seeds.



Like, take stuff in the mallow family (hibiscus, okra, hollyhocks, stuff like that.) The flowers open up with a twist, and when they're pollinated (or the next day--I don't know how long they stay open if they're not pollinated), they close up and fall off and they look like slimy "cigars" (or at least that's what I call the rose-of-Sharon flowers that drop in my parents' yard off the neighbor's tree.)



It varies by plant.



But then you'll have to wait a growing season for the plant to form seeds, and then you can plant those seeds and see what comes up.



Then, you can try again with the resulting generation.