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| Applying pollen and marking flowers There are two ways of applying collected pollen. The simplest is with a small brush, which must have natural hair. Synthetic fibres don’t attract and hold pollen grains, making it difficult to pollinate effectively. Find a female-stage flower whose petals are just beginning to separate, then with one hand carefully spread the petals to expose the glistening stigmas inside. With your other hand dip your brush into the container containing the pollen and a small amount will stick to the bristles, which you then insert into the centre, giving the brush a small turn to spread the pollen grains over the stigmas. Squeeze the petals gently together as the brush is withdrawn, so as much pollen as possible stays in the flower’s centre.  Steps for pollinating flowers: opening the flower, inserting the pollen coated brush, removing the brush The other way to apply pollen is with a small blower (only made in Japan and Chile for use as apple-pollinators, and can be difficult to find). Blowers are mostly used when there is lots of pollen, and lots of receptive flowers to pollinate. Big orchards sometimes mix the pollen with inert lycopodium spores (a moss), starch or talc powder to form a fine medium for pollen dilution. Blowers can reduce the time it takes to pollinate and are said to be more effective than a brush. They generally aren’t necessary for pollination on a small scale. Blowers do have the advantage over brushes when dealing with wet leaves and flowers as brushes tend to get waterlogged and then don’t pick up pollen very well. After pollinating each flower, it’s a good idea to put a mark on the stem with a waterproof marker pen, so you can tell which flowers you’ve already done. It only takes a little extra time but reduces the chances of pollinated flowers being picked. You will also be able to keep track of the fruit as they develop.  Marking pollinated flowers with a markerNext – the effects flowering date has on pollination
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