Ctsm.Doris Choice pollination update
 

Little over a month ago, I had received an unexpected letter containing pollen and I would go on to pollinate the two female flowers I had. Up until a week ago, I didn’t even remotely realize just how little time I had (got busy, didn’t do my homework) before these things would be ready for green flasking; the grower/breeder I had gotten the plant from filled me in when I reached out to him with a few questions a month after pollination.

Unfortunately, today I learned the person I had set up with locally for flasking has fallen ill since, but another endeavoring soul a little further away has committed themselves to making this bit of madness happen!

I didn’t know when exactly to harvest them, so I went by a timeframe that the original grower/breeder gave me—shout out to Ray too for mentioning some useful visual cues in response to another thread! I’d have liked to have gotten them a bit earlier when the tips were greener perhaps, but hopefully they’re not too far gone.

Some photos….
IMG 1503 — Postimages
IMG 1505 — Postimages

To be continued!

Welp…This is embarrassing. A miscommunication had occurred and I wound up harvesting these capsules way too early. Thankfully, I still have some pollen left and the experience from this run to guide me in the future, so I’ll chalk this up as a success at any rate!

Cue the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” :biggrin:

Yeah...I see no sign of yellowing or getting pale.

Too bad. There's aways next time.

Oh there’s gonna be a next time…I’m out for blood now!

Your advice is sound Ray, my interpretation of it was skewed by my own cognitive bias—I hope I didn’t offend by associating your name with my ignorance!

once you get bit by the pollination bug, there is no turning back!! good luck with your next attempt...

I still feel like a complete fool, but the relative simplicity of this pollination process is a big part of why I’m trying again. Unlike a tomato, no emasculation is necessary, the pollinia can’t necessarily ride on air currents, and the pollinators present in my environment(Euglossa dilemma being one of them)may not even be able to pollinate this plant even if they managed to find some pollen.

To be continued…Sometime in 2026! Blooms by 2028? Stay tuned!

What was that about orchids and patience? :biggrin:

Major bummer….sorry you weren’t aware of my flasking thread in propagation. It should probably be stickied so it’s easy to see.

I read the redneck and seed capsule threads, but unfortunately none of the links would come up on my device—I don’t have regular PC access, so perhaps I may be limited in what I can see using a mobile device! AOS has a table of maturity times for green pod culture up on their website, but it didn’t include any of the Catasetinae. I put some effort towards finding the answer, but not as much as I should have in retrospect!

The person that I got the plant from had been advising me throughout the pollination process and I reached out to them to get an idea of when they harvest theirs for green flasking—they had mistakenly written 5 1/2-6 WEEKS when they meant to write 5 1/2-6 MONTHS. At that point, I panicked because I was at 4 weeks with no flasking plans in place and the impression that the whole operation would be scrubbed if I didn’t get those harvested in time. It wasn’t until after I had harvested and shipped that the miscommunication had been realized, but the person I had arranged the flasking with said they’d try it anyway for the laughs.

It happens, and this time it happened to me!

I was wondering about that!

There is NO WAY I’m getting it wrong next time!

“The only way to get it right is to get it wrong”

“If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough”

-People, somewhere :biggrin: