Hello Mad Woman,
I would say 20% is a little low. I'm at around 50% now and expect to drop to around 30% after it gets really hot. I suspect the cause for your low rate may be that your plants are still fairly new. I have had lots of plants that won't set a pod until they've been established for a couple of years.
I've never used the term HOT pollen, so I'm not sure. It's ether very fertile or from a flower you accidentally broke off at the Hybridizer's garden and took home with you! ;0)
I think you're probably right; fertile.
I have seen very little to even suspect stray pollination, so I don't go to any extra steps to eliminate the possibility. I know some people do remove the sepals and petals and the stamen with them, but that's to keep the pollen away from the bugs and bees that steal it, and make the flower unattractive. It is still easily to pollinate the pistil.
Looks like some nice crosses you have made. The dip to tet cross will result in a pod, but in time it will dry up and fall off. I sometimes pollinate a tet with a dip to set a pod, getting the tet in the mood, so to speak. Sometime it works and it will start taking tet crosses.
Good luck, sounds like you are doing very well.
Ed

Hi Ed,
Thanks for the info about new plants. A lot of mine were planted last year, and a few this year.

There are no Hybridizer's around here, but if there were, I might be tempted by that Hot Pollen... :o) You are too funny.

Thanks for the well wishes... it is getting hotter here, so the mornings are getting earlier...

Did you see the pick of GE 6035? :o)

Fairysoapgirl - Twenty percent does sound a little low, but you have some great crosses that took. So celebrate! The first year I tried to dab pollen, almost everything took. The past two years I've had roughly a 60 percent success rate. So far this year I've had a 0 percent success rate out of 8 tries. We've had wildly fluctuating temperatures over the past month, and my first attempts involved new plants. Some cultivars have very strong pollen that almost always set a pod. Chartered Course pollen is like that for me. Good luck with your pods!

Debra

Oh yes... I am celebrating... checking on the pods daily, so I make sure they are not aborting! Although, I think one of the Half Moon Key x Musical Medley aborted... starting to shrivel. :o(

Thanks for the encouragement!

Fairysoapgirl - a time saver for the a.m. is to walk around the night before to see what will be open the next day. Write the info down and what pollen you are using.

The next a.m., let the pollen dry inside or use thawed pollen, and hit the plants as early as possible. Using all the same pollen on the same plant also saves times. Check each successfuly pollinated plant off your list as you dab.

By having a plan first thing in the morning you have a couple more hours for the pollen to do its job while the temps are still low. Your success rate will go up dramatically. You can pollinate a lot of daylilies in an hour.

Now you can take pictures in the early morning sun. After pics, take your list and your wires and tag the plants. I've tagged plants even in the evening. The pollen is easily visible on the stamen.

Brooke

Thanks Brook,

I do walk around the night before, hoping that I can tell what will open. Some are real easy (Spacecoast Surprise Purple) and others I can't really tell (usually smaller dips)...

I have been using the Plantstep flower softwear, and that makes planning a lot easier.

I try to use the same pollen on all the flowers on one plant - otherwise I would have like all 100 baggies of pollen in my pocket and that would NEVER work.

So, usually I make the first round with the camera, then back in to enter them into plantstep (takes about 15 minutes, because I have to decide...) then back out with the list, wires and tweezers!

The BF thinks I'm nuts!