Cattleya is pollinated. Should I bother doing anything?

[DirtyCoconuts]

My amazing wife found this HuGE Catt. In a pot with other plants in a neighbors garbage pile. She knows I want all pots and plants so she grabs me what she can( keeper!

Anyway, this happened to have a specimen cattleya in it (score) and on of the pseudobulbs is swollen up like a golf ball and I assume it is a pollinated sac.

I will post a pic when I have enough posts to earn the right

I know it is damn impossible for anything to happen if I leave it alone as I lack the fungus and skills to make the miracle happen....what is entailed, in cost and effort, to harvesting and sending seeds to a lab? Is is worthless if it is a NoID? I know the fungus is super specific to each species...

Anyone have any experience?

---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:52 AM ----------

Oh I forgot to mention that I have no experience with deflasking either....

Sounding like I am a poor candidate... but you have to get experience somewhere lol

[SouthPark]

If you want to see what happens with the pod, then it's possible to send it to some place after some sort of sterilisation procedure has been done - when the appropriate time comes.

Otherwise, because that plant is so big. You could just simply divide the plant. And dividing the plant can be beneficial - protection against virus. Backups are good for that sort of thing.

[Ray]

Wow! I can see that processing that capsule would be tempting, but you're right that a NOID doesn't hold much value, and you need to consider the cost of having it flasked, then replated from mother flasks to potentially dozens of daughter flasks. Then you have to properly care for the flasks for several years, then unflask and raise potentially hundreds of seedlings for several more years before you have a chance of seeing a blossom.

That said, maybe there is a hobby flasker that would do it in exchange for some seedlings, and you could limit the number of daughter flasks and seedlings that you raise to keep it limited on the cash and growing resources.

It's a shame you cannot find the original owner, as you might get an ID that way, and an idea of the cross or selfing.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I wouldn't divide the plant yet if you want to try growing the seeds.

Growing orchid seeds successfully requires laboratory growing conditions and sterile conditions. Although you can replicate these at home, my suggestion is to find a flasking service instead. You can find services that can grow the seeds here: Flasking Services for Orchids

That seed capsule seems close to dehiscing (opening). If it develops little splits, contact one of those flasking services and follow their instructions for harvesting and shipping the capsule (or harvested seed) to them.

Orchid seed is tiny and dust-like. That pod could have a million seeds in it. When you see it the first time, you will think that all you have is a bunch of fibrous dust (that's the seed).

Ray may be right that a Cattleya with no identification (NOID) is not of value ($), but on the other hand, it could be interesting, fun, and even educational trying to grow them.

Good luck

[DirtyCoconuts]

Big roll of the dice.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Pod and nepenthe by J Solo, on Flickr



well she's opening!!

there is literally no way to get to the bottom of this pot without a major upsetting of the contents..there is a smallish palm and an umbrella plany in there too.

I think that i will just let it be and see if I cant soak the whole pot in a huge tub and then separate the inhabitants...…

either way i don't see any chance for this round of seeds....


anyone want about 1,242,425 seeds ?

[Fran20]

" I lack the fungus and skills to make the miracle happen."

I've read in an article published by the Brooklyn Botanical Garden that, before they knew about the myc. fungus, growers in the 1800's had some success when they sowed the seeds near the mother plant because the seeds were exposed to the fungus with which the mother plant had already been in contact.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I don’t think that’s do-able here. I was reading the experiment of a fellow member in Miami Beach and I can’t get any of the medium because there isn’t any. It’s a 14-16” pot with a massive Catt and an umbrella plant and a palm tree......
I can neither get to the bottom nor remove any material. Hence my thinking about removing the whole kit and kaboodle. And if I do that, I am sure to lose the sympathetic fungus and the advantage of the mother in the first place.


Soooooo I think I’ll let it drop and whither and then see if any Tinys pop up in a year lol

[SouthPark]

If no other option - then maybe heheheh .... just maybe, follow similar lines of the person that posted some method in OrchidBoard forum at one stage - such as cutting a bunch of roots --- even if it is aerial root from some orchids - eg. Angraecum aerial roots, dendrobium, vanda, or whatever --- or just mix them all in. Grind them up somehow - but maybe not use a blender ------ to avoid heating it up. Make a paste out of it or liquid. Then put the cattleya seeds into it. Pop into some spray bottle, and spray into some logs, tree stumps, scoria, spaghnum, or bark etc. And keep the media damp in an airy environment, in some shade. And see what happens over time. Add some mancozeb spray occasionally.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Soooooo I think I’ll let it drop and whither and then see if any Tinys pop up in a year lol

Sounds to me like the best, easiest approach. I have never had a baby emerge from a big Catt that got knocked up but reed-stem Epidendrums do it now and then. In your warm Florida climate, the seedlings may have a better chance. This will be a fun one to watch.