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I have naranjillas in my house. I am trying to pollinate them. I have used a vibrating bee to release the pollen and catch it in a dish and then use a paint brush to put it on the stigma. Nothing is working. Please help!

user38710
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    Two questions: Do you have multiple plants and do you exchange the pollen? Do you make sure to pollinate the female flowers? – Stephie Jan 31 '22 at 06:33
  • I have 8 plants in my house. I was exchanging pollen but I definitely wasn’t looking for females! I just was putting it in all the flowers. Is the paintbrush the best way to put it on? I really appreciate your answer! – user38710 Feb 01 '22 at 14:24
  • In case you would have plants outside, here's a more long-term solution; plant pollinator-attracting plants in your garden. Those with sweet flowers that will blossom at different times of the year. We're planting borage, jade plants, sunflowers, and the bees and other insects that come to the garden eventually pollinate other plants as well. Don't use chemical pesticides or herbicides, as those will deter and/or kill the living beings in your garden, bees included. – Fred Rocha Feb 01 '22 at 16:29
  • I am in northern Minnesota. Outside isn’t an option. – user38710 Feb 02 '22 at 17:14

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Not all naranjilla flowers can bear fruit. As described in this answer, narajillas bear two types of flowers, one type is functionally male and the other hermaphrodite. Only the hermaphrodite flowers can be pollinated to develop to fruits. The two types of flowers can be distinguished by the lengths of the styles of their pistils.

In the following pictures, the left one is a hermaphrodite flower (notice the long hanging style), and the right one is a (functionally) male flower with short style (Attributions: (left image) Digital Camera, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; (right image) I.Sáček, senior, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).

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Also, as noted in this paper, cross-pollination success rate is considerably higher compared to self-pollination of hermaphrodite flowers. So, it is advised that after collection of pollen from a functionally male or hermaphrodite flower, the pollen is used to pollinate a different hermaphrodite flower. Since naranjillas require buzz pollination, you need to use a vibrating bee or other sources of vibration to collect pollen.

Coat the stigmas of the pistils of hermaphrodite flowers with the collected pollen. Ensure that you collect enough pollen to do that in several hermaphrodite flowers. The pollination success rate of naranjillas is relatively low. So, do hand-pollination for a large collection of naranjilla flowers, as much is convenient for you. The panitbrush method should be OK, provided the paintbrush is clean and you transport enough pollen to the intended stigmas of your chosen hermaphrodite flowers.

joy
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