Pollination

[Celcat]

I am a bit bored at home lately. Out of the 20 chids at home, only 4 are in flowers. All the ones who needed repotting, have been repotted. I have done some cuttings too, they look alright. I want to experiment something I have never done before: pollination

I have tried to pollinate one of my orchid pansy... I took some pictures
The 1st pic shows a flower not pollinated and the 2d pic show the attempt pollinated flower... I can see clearly a difference between the 2. I was wondering do you think I will be able to get some seeds and how long will I wait before I can collect the seeds?

Thank you for your help

[Bolero]

I have done the same thing two days ago but I haven't noticed any change in the plant yet. How long until the change happens? And how long until a seed pod starts to form?

I did it out of boredom, not sure if the cross will be worth having or not.

[Celcat]

Good day Bolero,

Well, I think it took 3 or 4 days. I did it too because I was bored. I tried to cross a phal with an orchid pansy! It was maybe a bit too audicious... but if you don't try you don't get.
Something definitively happened, but then all the untouched flowers started to die off except the one which was pollinated. But eventually, after two weeks, even this one died.
I think worth it to try, at least just for the experience. Next time, I will pollinated the flower when it is only 2 or 3 days old. I am not sure where I did read it, but it seems that you get better result that way.

Good growing

[Ellen]

You cannot cross a phal with a Miltoniopsis, even if the flowers are 2-3 days old. Some genera can be crossed, but they need to be at least distantly related. To relieve the boredom, I suggest googling "orchid pollination", "orchid hybridizing", and other relevant key phrases and reading about how to do it before you try more futile experiments and add frustration to the boredom.

[Gold3nku5h]

I just tried it a few days ago, and it seemed to go good. The flowers that i did pollinate were selfed. Where i placed the anthers closed up on them, which i think is a good sign, they also have increased in size compared to the other flowers that aren't pollinated. And they started to shrivel today which is another plus so i'll wait and see how the rest goes. Did you get any seeds or a seed pod? I see that you did yours around 4months ago.
-Aaron

[fred]

welcome to the forum Aaron
please feel free to go to our Introduction Section and Introduce yourself to all of our wonderful geeks
also can you please go into your UserCP at the top left of the page and Update your Profile with your Location so we can understand your growing conditions and also with giving you the right advice for your location.

thank you.

[Celcat]

Welcome to the forum Gold3nku5h,

I hope it will work for you. The pollination is not difficult in itself, but to make it work you have to make sure that the genera are compatible. I have not been lucky on this one. I have chosen a phal with an orchid pansy. I dont care if it was stupid as some said, it was a good learning curve. At least now, I know that I can pollinate plants, just next I will choose different plants

My pollination died eventually after a month. I could see the pod, but it dropped and I have not tried since. I would do it again with different plants, But good luck with yours and let me know how it goes

[solay]

Trying is part of the fun. Hey, I went out in the yard and started to mix pollen from all my Oriental Lilies around a couple of weeks ago. Who knows? Might have had a weired cross. Then when the petals started to wilt, I just cut them off. So I guess I won't know if it did anything. I just felt like doing something at that particular moment, but then decided I really don't want seeds. It was just fun practice.
Practice makes perfect. Don't stop experimenting Celcat. Can't wait to see what you pollinate next time.

[GrowInHydro]

I have a lot of success crossing Catt's. After the flower takes the pollinia, it will senesce. In a matter of days you should see that the stigmatic surface has swollen and kind of closed up. If the pollination was successful, you will see the fruit (seed pod) swell over the next few months to a year before it splits and spills the seed.

There are lists out there with a Google search that can give you an idea of how long until the seeds are mature enough to be viable.

Best chances for successful flasking are when you harvest the green pods and either send them off to a service, or sterilize and flask yourself; it is much easier to sterilize the pod then the million or so seeds you'll get. And you'll get a higher yield because the seeds were not exposed to the sanitizer which will inevitably kill off a percentage of the embryo's.

Cheers!
Jesse

[mgfree]

Here are some pics of my spathoglottis plicata seed pods forming just to give you an idea.

IMG]http://i523.photobucket.com/albums/w358/mgfree81/IMG_3723.jpg[/IMG]



I don't do much with these, I tend to just place them around the base of the plant and keep my fingers crossed. No luck yet though

[mgfree]

Oops, here's a better one

[solay]

That's really neat.

[Celcat]

for you encouragement

I will try again, as you said Solay Practice makes perfect. By the way I love your post with your husband's tattoo! So good

mgfree, thanks for this beautiful pic. Beautiful color

Jesse, thanks for your info. I did not realise that I should sterilise the pods or seeds. I learn everyday