Cattleya is pollinated. Should I bother doing anything?

[DirtyCoconuts]

I’ll keep ya posted. My wife had a brilliant idea about simply cutting the other two plants off at the base so the Catt is more exposed. Then I can better see the bottom and the possibilities for babies

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

I’ll keep ya posted. My wife had a brilliant idea about simply cutting the other two plants off at the base so the Catt is more exposed. Then I can better see the bottom and the possibilities for babies

Any idea what those other plants are? Volunteers? I tend to remove volunteers from pots because "dirt plants" (non-orchids) tend to keep the mix too wet. But if there isn't much (or any) medium, the ecosystem seems to be working. Your choice... The Catt looks quite happy.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Roberta. They are an umbrella tree and a palm tree. No joke.

I don’t know what someone was thinking but this family was found in a garbage pile and my wife said, those leaves look like one of papi’s plants and grabbed it. (God I love her!)


So I am thinking I will separate the family when I can fill a 50g tote and soak the whole pot

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

So I am thinking I will separate the family when I can fill a 50g tote and soak the whole pot

And enlist some reinforcements to help you (like maybe the significant other...) But great rescue. Certainly don't whack the "other plants" ... separate when convenient, clearly none of the plants are in in any hurry.

[SG in CR]

I've been having some success with open air germination by inoculating substrates with mycorhizzal fungi. But most of my orchids are native and naturally germinated to begin with, so they have the right fungus to begin with. Maybe your orchid does too. If you want to try, what I've done is collect some live roots from orchids of the same family of orchids ( I assume that there will be some overlap in the what sort of fungus they associate with). Chop them up into small pieces and put them in a blender with water and a bit of molasses and seaweed fertilizer (not much). Blend it up and strain the liquid into a sprayer. Spray the pots/branches you want to spread the seed. Try a variety of substrates as you don't know what the fungus likes. It might be moss, bark, lichen, who knows. With some luck you might have the right fungus in the mix and get little green dots show up in a few months.

[DirtyCoconuts]

More haauuuus by J Solo, on Flickr

i noticed ( and tried to capture in these pics) that a good bit of the seeds is already falling down into the pot...

its the white stuff in this pic

More haauuuus by J Solo, on Flickr



so my new idea is to make like sphagnum balls and some big bits of bark and some lava rock and just drop them down into the pot near where this leaf is....

as the seed keep dropping, my hope is, some will land on these "starter" media and be in close enough proximity to the mother to have some fungus around....in a perfect setting the babies will develop on the "starters" and then i can remove them intact when they show up


????? or not at all

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

as the seed keep dropping, my hope is, some will land on these "starter" media and be in close enough proximity to the mother to have some fungus around....in a perfect setting the babies will develop on the "starters" and then i can remove them intact when they show up


????? or not at all

Can't hurt. Will be a fun experiment. Keep us posted!

[DirtyCoconuts]

So there are a LOT of seeds in this pod. Several days of lots of wind and rain and the pod is still about half full. I have decided to experiment and have let seed fall onto the media( charcoal, bark ) and then place those near other orchids to see what happens.

More to come over time

[DirtyCoconuts]

Orchid show by J Solo, on Flickr

well i guess this is a plant sex machine....the seed pod is just drying up and 3 of the 6 sheaths pop the same day!!!

Orchid show by J Solo, on Flickr

[Fran20]

If You are still interested in this project, Rebecca Tyson Northen provides step by step instructions on the topic in chapter 8 of her book "Home Orchid Growing" p.90 published by Prentice hall press 1990.