Hi Julles, as well as making crosses where I know exactly who both parents are I mix pollens of plants that I like and consider to be contenders or breeders and pollinate other plants that I like. then I label the pods as " whatever x whatever mix. That way I know who is pod parent but not pollen parent. I make a trade-off, I loose knowledge of who the pollen parent is but I gain crosses that I just wouldn't have time for otherwise. most of the crosses I deal with these days are very picky about who they will cross with and mixing pollens is there way of "speed dating". Maybe only 3 pollens out of 50 will cross I just won't know which 3 it is. But I don't have to do all of the different labels and bagging of flowers for pollen etc. because I'm not that worried about pollen purity. These crosses are basically the same as bee crosses but I am the bee and have just a little more control. I go out very early and bag the first day flowers to beat most of the bees and after pollinating I bag the flowers to keep bees out. I only do this a couple of times a summer mostly I do controlled crosses. Mike.
