pollinating - Orchid Board

ericst11 · #1 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 03:49 PM

I was woundering if you could do more then one cross if a plant has more then one flower on the inflorescence or does it take one of the crosses and abort the other or is it to much stress on the plant and it will abort both.

RosieC · #2 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 06:10 PM

Interesting question.

My sort of guess (but it's only a guess) would be that you could do it on different flowers, but it may be too much stress for the plant to mature both.

Wonder what the experts think!

ericst11 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 06:39 PM

I'm tring it right now as we speak i just pollinated the flowers about 3 day ago i hope one matures and the rest is a crap shoot or i could fail I became a little over zealous when pollinating.

lambelkip · #4 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RosieC

Interesting question.

My sort of guess (but it's only a guess) would be that you could do it on different flowers, but it may be too much stress for the plant to mature both.

Wonder what the experts think!

if a plant produces a certain number of flowers, it can generally support that many seed pods. search the web for pictures of vanilla on the vine - there will generally be about a dozen pods on each spike.

when you're making more than one hybrid on the same plant, try to wrap a tag around the stem of each flower, so that you know which cross it is.

ericst11 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 08:58 PM

Thats good to know Kip , I always label even if its a selfing ,i just wasn't sure if the plant was able to mature 3 differant crosses.

Undergrounder · #6 (**permalink**) 11-04-2009, 09:40 AM

They can generally take as many capsules as there are flowers, but weak growing plants are a risk. I would only consider it on mature and strong growing plants, and then sure, go for it.

I wouldn't risk setting a capsule on an immature first-flowering either, especially if its a valuable plant.

RoyalOrchids · #7 (**permalink**) 11-05-2009, 03:31 PM

I do it all the time. Right now I have three different capsules on an Encyclia from this past summer and two different ones on Cattleya. Heed Undergrounder's warning, though. Setting seed does sap energy from the plant, and too many capsules can cause some to abort or just not set any seed.