Ascocentrum christensonianum

[Mahon]

I have a blooming plant of Ascocentrum christensonianum, I am trying to self cross the plant (as I can't get another Asc. christensonianum right now), but the flowers are not taking... they are new flowers, and they just won't take... does anyone know why this is happening? Now that the flowers have been open for about a month now, they are slowly fading and falling right off the spike. I tried to self cross last year, and evn cross with Aerides odorata, and Vanda coerulea, but it just wont take. The staminode is so tiny, that only the Asc. christensonianum pollen will fit, but on other Vandaceos genera, only one pollen sac fits, even Asc. curvifolium and Asc. garayii...

I can't seem to figure it out, I have a beautiful flowering plant, it has bloomed so far 5 spikes over the past year or so. I forgot, even the pollen from the Asc. christensonianum won't ferilize the other flowers of other Vandaceous genera. The 2 other Asco. species, I had stored some of their pollen, as they bloomed a while before the Asco. christensonianum bloomed... so I couldn't pollinate those plant's flowers. Can't figure out what is up, maybe it is a sterile plant?

-Pat

[littlefrog]

Might be self sterile, a lot of plants are like that... Or maybe it is a natural triploid, might not be all that fertile if that was the case.

If my christensonianum was in bloom right now, I'd send you pollen.

One last thing to try... Soak your pollen in spit (good old human saliva) for ten minutes or so before attempting the cross. The enzymes in saliva can digest some of the self/self incompatibility proteins (or so I've heard).

[Mahon]

I will try to soak it in spit, and see what happens... if it works, I will be very amazed...

Thanks for the advice, I will try it in a little bit, and will post an update on that... there are only a few flowers left, so I gotta hurry...

-Pat

[Mahon]

...forgot to update on this one...

I soaked it in spit, and nothing happened. But, I had some older pollen from flowers starting to wilt, and I put them in newer flowers... I found the secret to my plant. I did this with 3 flowers; pollinating new flowers with old pollen, and old flowers with new pollen... the old flowers wilted off, but the three new flowers pollinated with old pollen, that I marked, are developing large seed pods!

-Pat