I have a female monkey puzzle that has been producing cones for about five years. The nearest male that I am aware of is about 4 kms away. Four years ago I got some cones from it and hung them in my cedar hedge hoping they would be pollinated, but no luck. Last fall and this spring I found 3 seeds on the ground so I thought I would try again. I have several male cones. The lowest female cone is about twenty feet high. I have tried to get the male cones up to them but haven't found an efficient method of doing so. The most success I have had to date is using a long bamboo pole with a mesh bag attached. Also the pollen falls out of the male cones so quickly that most of it is gone before I can get them in the vacinity of the female cones. Does anyone have suggestions. I now have a considerable amount of loose pollen as well as 4 male cones.
I wonder if the instant gratification of a seedling would help your quest Search for forum member nicknamed Monkey Out in Langley BC monkey tree plants available in Canada?
Collect some pollen cones when they are just starting to shed their first pollen. Dry them out in a warm room for a day or two, and tap the pollen out on to a sheet of paper - you'll get a surprising amount from each pollen cone. Tip the pollen into a syringe or pea-shooter or similar, and use that to puff the pollen up around the new seed cones (best done on a reasonably calm day). Note that the seed cones take about 16 months from pollination time to seed maturity.
The lowest female cone is 20 feet up. I don't think I can blow it that far. I am interested eating them, not growing them.
Sounds like you might need to get inventive with making modifications on a telescoping pole pruner. Or, depending on the amount of pollen you have, something that blows the pollen upward on the calmest of days.
