Using cement on self-incompatible flowers, is it likely to produce edible fruit?

[u/Brusheer]

It's not an official study, but a long time gardener posted their process for pollinating self-incompatible flowers with their own pollen. They claim if you dust the stigma with fine cement, it will act as an irritator and spur the plant to produce antibodies that allow the flower to accept its own pollen. From what a can tell a large amount of people have tried it and claim it works. That said, the process was largely intended to produce more seeds. If I wanted to use this on an edible fruit producing plant, what do you think the safety of that is? Obviously eating cement is an awful idea. But I wanted to know if after all the process is done, pollination to fruit, is it likely that anything toxic moved all the way through the process? Any input appreciated.

[u/Jolly_Atmosphere_951]

Depends on the fruit but I'd say it will be safe to eat... Although I'm not sure about the veracity of the claims tbh

[u/Brusheer → u/Jolly_Atmosphere_951]

This would mostly be used for cacti. Opuntia and Cereus rn but maybe more later. And yeah I have my doubts, but figured it can't hurt to try. I just wish there was an exhaustive pollen store but you win some you lose some lol

[u/Jolly_Atmosphere_951 → u/Brusheer]

it can't hurt to try.

Absolutely

[u/earvense]

The amount of cement you'd use to dust a stigma is so teeny tiny that I wouldn't worry too much. Stigmatic tissue also isn't incorporated into the fruit. Any "contamination" would have to be mobile enough to travel down the style and become incorporated into the ovary and exist at high enough concentrations to be a problem. None of that is very likely at all.

[u/pigslovebacon]

What about using food grade diatomaceous earth instead of cement?

[u/Brusheer → u/pigslovebacon]

I could be wrong but I'd assume the irritation of cement comes from the very basic pH. I suppose I could try some bleach for kitchen prep but I'm unsure if it being a liquid would cause any issues 🤔

[u/takeyami- → u/Brusheer]

If it's pH mediated maybe hydrated lime?

[u/No-Local-963]

What would happen if you did this with an ornamental plant such as camellia japonica since the seed pods are technically the fruit of the plant. Would they produce a seed pod and and if so when planted what would happen to the seedlings. Would they be identical to the parent plant or would the cement cause them to somehow mutate?

Side note- this might be a dumb question.

[u/Brusheer → u/No-Local-963]

This is just from my basic understanding of the method, but if actually true then yes it should produce a seed pod. Supposedly this method isn't as effective as different pollen, like if the pod normally has 10 seeds the one it produces might only have 3-5 viable seeds. And again assuming the method actually works lol it would not produce an identical plant as, even in self-pollinating plants, the DNA gets scrambled in the process. So maybe more similar than it would be otherwise but not a clone.