Pollen ripening
 

I have two catt alliance plants I want to cross. How do I tell when the pollen is ripe?

How long before I can tell if it took once I place the pollen?

Some experts said that pollinate after the flower full opens a week. I used to enjoy blooming for 3-4 weeks then pollinate and still got several pods. Try to cross pollinate if you have more than one plants. If you have only one plant try to cross pollinate between flowers. After pollinating, don't move the plant. Normally 3 - 7 days you will see the base of the flower swollen means it's good chance if not it's dead. The flower will fade either it's good or bad. After 3 months if the pod doesn't drop it's good and the pod may have many viable seeds.

Do you crush the pollen cap or do you just insert it and let it dissolve?

I just insert pollen.

I was messing around one time and tried pollinating some flowers. The flowers started swelling and closed up. I left them that way, but soon all of the flowers closed, even the ones I did not pollinate, and then the stems started to turn brown after a week or so. Is that normal or does that mean my pollinating did not work? Either way, I was just having fun!

The flower I chose to pollenate is starting to wither. I will be watching closely for swelling to start at the base of the flower.

I think I will also do another flower as a backup in a day or two.

Here are pics of the pollen doner (Slc Jungle Gem) and the receptor (Blc Golden Tang).

Yes, most probably! :(

Some of my pods this year. All of them are Phals self and cross.

Attachment 3920

Attachment 3921

Attachment 3922

Attachment 3923

Enough for me to play and exchange this year.:blushing: :banana: :bananaslide:

Cheers

Polln ripening
 

Hi to Steve from Idaho, and everyone,
I stopped in to check for seed capsule ripening times, but I'll leave that to another thread. So here's my two cents...
As far as when to take pollen and when to place it on a bloom, the pollinia(male part) is ready before the stigma (female part). Once the bloom is open, wait 24 to 48 hours for the stigma to be more receptive. I have used pollinia from a bloom that is declining or even falling off the plant and saved the pollen for six months or more. It appears that any pollinia may be fertile. Of course the condition of the pod parent, the orchid as a whole as well as the bloom itself, is much more crucial. I like what was said earlier. If the bloom is fragrant, it is obviously 'open for business'. At first fragrance, the bloom is probably at its best time to both contribute pollen or accept it. For orchids that are not fragrant, the ideal time is two days after the bloom opens. I prefer to take pollinia from another orchid or bloom and place it on a bloom without disturbing its own pollinia.
The pollinia is generally orange or yellow often a hard 'kernel' or 'grain'. I do not try to crush or slice the pollinia since it is likely to be launched away like a watermelon seed at a picnic. So get a tiny amount of the tacky fluid from the pod parent's stigma with a toothpick and pick up the pollinia grain directly on the end of the toothpick. Here's a tip: If you are attempting a 'selfing' or retrying a cross that has previously not 'taken', you can increase your chances by wetting the pollinia with your saliva for 5 minutes or more. Yes, spit on it! Don't rinse it. I'll skip the scientific explanation. It works. Carefully place the pollinia in the lower center part of the stigma 'pocket'. Pressing it down gives the pollen tubes a shorter distance to grow down to the ovary. Actually anywhere in the moist sticky area of the stigma will work. One hybridizer reports taking the pollinia out the next day and using it to fertilize a second or third bloom with good pod results.
It is normal for the bloom to close in toward the column. In some species/hybrids the bloom may dry up. In some the bloom itself may thicken and turn green. If there is a "pregnancy", the short stem that connects the bloom to the inflorescence will remain green and begin to swell into a seed capsule. If the cross did not take, that stem may turn pale right away and fall away with the bloom. If it swells up, I tend to get excited and gather up the mason jars! However the seed capsules can recognize when there are no viable seeds. Or for other reasons the capsule will fail.
The capsule will yellow, maybe brown, shrivel in place or eventually fall away. Generally if the capsule grows green past the halfway mark, there will be the pitter patter of orchid feet in the greenhouse, well ... next year!

Lee

Thanks Lee.

My first attempt failed. I have tried again with a new pollen and a newer flower.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Hi Steven,
you probably aready know, but there is also the possibility that one or both your plants are sterile, so in this case the pollination isn't possible.
If you will have success (my fingers are crossed too) there is also the probablity , once the seedlings will be adults, that they are sterile so the only system to have sons of the choosen plant (because probably all the seedling will be a little different both the former to the latter) is to clone the plant per meristem.
Ciao

Some kinds of pollen are sterile. Pollen block is cover by a special protein which prevents self pollinating. In this case you can crush pollen block or deep into contact lens cleaner solution. The solution dissolves the cover which allows pollen to enter stigma system. Many people successfully pollinate using the solution. Some reports said that this case is rarely and only happen to self pollination.

An orchid's bloom does recognize the protein covering on their own pollen and may resist a selfing. It is nature's way of selecting for more biodiversity. This also inhibits some crosses. However some crosses just are not meant to be. That is one reason why a pod begins to form until the orchid recognizes there are no viable seeds forming. Some hybridizers routinely place pollen in their saliva. The enzymes in spit will 'erase' the genetic imprinting in the protein covering. If you use contact lens cleaner, get the kind labeled enzymatic to remove protein deposits. Soaking in saliva or lens cleaner should be for 5 minutes stirring intermittently. Don't rinse. Place into the stigma.
Depending on the pollinia, you may find they are hard to slice or crush. Be prepared to catch it if it 'launches away'.
The goodies are inside that pollinia! As long as we 'fool' mother nature...er, give her a helping hand!
Announcing... <drumroll> Vandacatt Marvey Cute 'EyeDidIt!'
lee at classicorchid com

It looks like my second attempt is failing as well: yellow flower stem.

Can I remove the pollen, do the saliva soak and try again on the last flowers?

If I was you I will not try saliva. There are a lot of bacteria in saliva such as gum disease bacteria. Wet your pollen by stigma fluid or contact lens cleaner. It may give you more chances.

I'm a beginner in phalaenopsis hand pollination and still hoping I can be able to come up with a good pod since I'm kind of desperate because I wanted to propagate two of my phals of different hybrids that I bought three weeks ago, though I tried hand pollinating my oncidium and dendro before, but with no luck. I wish from anybody to give me an advice on this. And I would like to know what might be the problem why I'm not having any success with pollinating.

Sometimes they just don't take. I would say only about 40%-50% of my pollenations actually end up successful. I don't know if you tried to cross the Dendro. and Onc., or just self-pollinate, but those two don't cross with eachother. Also, sometimes it is better to take pollen from one flower, and cross it with another flower on the same plant, instead of self-pollinating.

This is probably true more often than we think. Many modern hybrids (especially Phals) are the result of haphazard breeding without regard to ploidy. Catalogues and collections are wrought with 3N and presumed 4N plants. Breeding just to breed often yields results that make matters worse. Ploidy, or the number of copies of chromosomes a plant has, is the main factor in fertility. This is why crossing the Dend with an Onc. just doesn't work - the chromosomes don't match up. Crossing a 3N with anything is similar, it probably won't take. If it does, it might yeild some mutations, maybe a few 3N plants in the mix, or maybe (probably) all 3N. The few that actually survive might be deformed, peloric, and all will most certainly be sterile.

I have a couple of questions on pollinating flowers from the Phalaenopsis.
I would like to get soms seed from my orchids, but I offcourse I like the flowers a lot. So these are my questions:

- When I use the male part of a flower to pollinate another flower, will the first flower (the one I used the male part from) also fade?

- When I pollinate a couple of flowers from the same plant will all the flowers fade (also the ones that I didn't touch?) Or maybe only the flowers from the same stem?

- How long should I wait before pollinating? I read something about a day after opening, but that would be a pity for the nice flower. What are the chances of succesfull polinating a flower which is almost at it's end?

- Is it okay to move the plant 2 months after pollinating? (because I will go on holiday and the plants will be moved to someone else)

- I read that when the flowers start to fade by itself after a couple of monts I should cut the stem below the first flower to get a new stem. When I pollinate the flower it has to stay on for 6 months. Does that mean it will take longer before it will have flowers again? And that there will not be a new stem?

Greetings,
Sanne

p.s. english is not my first language, so if I translated some of the orchid terms incorrectly, pleas correct me :)

Okay....
-As soon as you remove the pollinia from the pollen bearing plant, it has done it's job...the flower from which the pollen came from will die. The receiving flower will last a little longer, as long as you don't disturb it's pollinia.

-The flowers that you do not disturb, will be fine also.

-Successful pollination involves many factors, it is about a 50/50 chance that it will take, then another 50/50 chance whether the seed will contain embryo. Pollination can take place at the end of the flowering cycle, but it lessens your odds.

-It is fine to move the plant while it's bearing seed....the most it should do is go dormant for a little while.

-As long as the seed is there, the spike will stay green to feed the seed. If it wants to bloom, it will send out a new spike.

Thanx a lot for your answers!! :D

I will enjoy my flowers a little longer and then try to pollinate some flowers :)