Eric L. Nielsen1, David Baltensperger1, and Geoff Soper2. (1) University of Nebraska, Panhandle Research and Extension Center, 4502 Avenue I, Scottsbluff, NE 69361, (2) University of Canterbury, 90 Ilam Road, Christchurch, 8020, New Zealand
New cultivars of proso millet with specific traits have been developed at the University of Nebraska. Because it is important to maintain genetic integrity when producing seed by avoiding pollen contamination from off types of proso, an experiment was initiated to determine the potential quantity and distance airborne proso pollen travels from the source during flowering. Existing pollen sampling equipment was prohibitively expensive and deemed to be unsatisfactory for this experiment, so an inexpensive, simple pollen sampling device was designed, constructed and tested. The device is made from a 9 inch Pasteur Pipet with a windvane attached to the reservoir end, and a level surfaced 3 cm long ridge of silicon grease applied along the tip section on the side opposite from the windvane to capture airborne pollen. The pipet is mounted on a 5/32 inch rod pushed vertically into the ground with a 5/32 inch ball bearing on top of the rod inside the pipet to facilitate unhampered rotation of the sampler to keep the greased surface facing directly into the air current. The sampler was then successfully used to collect pollen from distances ranging from adjacent to proso plants to 300 meters downwind from 2 flowering proso production fields. Viewing the greased surfaces of the tip sections under a microscope at 100x indicated that the pollen counts obtained at a distance of 30 meters from the source had declined to less than 50% of their field edge value, and declined to as little as 3% at a distance of 300 meters.
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