| You can do flasking with green pods OR dried pods. Which you do will depend on the preferences of the lab you choose to send your seed to. I prefer dry pod flasking because I know for sure that the seed are mature. With green pods, I think the tendency is to harvest them too soon before the seed are viable, especially if you're a newbie. When a pod is ready, you will know it because the stem linking the pod to the main stalk turns yellow and stops providing water and nutrients to the pod. At this point you need to check the pod every day. Soon the pod will start to split, usually at the end closest to where the flower was. This is when you harvest the pod and hang it over a paper container (e.g., coffee filter or paper envelope) to catch the seed. Once all the seed is out of the pod, you can tape the filter or envelope closed and ship the seed that way. Don't use plastic, as the seed can rot if there's any moisture in it. Send the seed off to the lab as soon as you can after harvesting. There are several tables giving estimated maturation times for orchid pods. Just Google it and you'll find them. You can also Google orchid flasking services and pod preparation techniques using both green pod and dry pod methods. If you want some recommendations of labs that could flask your particular orchid, feel free to PM me.  |