Pollen Control Pollen Control for Hybrid Production Hybrid crops are commercially very important in agriculture. In order to produce the large quantity of seed needed for sales to farmers, plant breeders must be able to make controlled crosses between the two varieties on a very large scale.
Plant reproduction is similar to animal reproduction.
One key difference in plants is that many plants contain both the male and female parts on the same plant, even in the same flower, and such a plant can fertilize itself . Because of this important difference, the trick in producing a hybrid is to get one plant to fertilize a second plant without the second plant fertilizing itself . In order to do this the plant breeder must in some way prevent the second plant from producing its own pollen. Several pollen-control techniques are used by breeders in hybrid production. One involves removal of the male parts of the flower by hand before they shed pollen-a process called emasculation .