Is my seed pod ready?
 

do you think my seed pod is ready yet? this is my first one so bear with me

no, it's not. it will get quite a bit bigger, and begin to change color before it's ready.

okay. here is a better quality picture of it. does it matter that that part of the spike is turning brown? you should be able to see in the new pic. thanks

the spike above the seedpod is turning brown. the spike below the seedpod is still green, and still providing nutrients for the growing pod. you still have a while to go before it's ripe.

It usually takes at least 6 months for a pod to mature. The one time I did a pod for someone that wanted a selfing of one of my plants we kept the pod on 8 months.

Susan

okay, it was polinated around christmas '09

To be correct, it's a "capsule", not a "pod".

My recommendation is to keep a close eye on it, and when you see the slightest bit of yellowing at either end, it's time to harvest and rush it off for culturing.

Ray, I know there are two dfifferent schools of thought in regards to when to harvest a capsule...one being that you harvest it green, the other harvesting it dry. Are you in the school that wants to do it green?

I did my first harvesting with help of Troy Meyers from an Encyclia Tampensis. I waited until the capsule started to split, then harvested it. It then went into a coffee filter for about ten days. At that point the capsule had fully opened and the seeds (dry) were then placed in another clean coffee filter, and immediately mailed to Troy. I had a 98% germination from that first time.

Upon looking at others that sent seeds to Troy, many others attempts had failed.

So my question is....why harvest green over dry?

Here's mine at Troy's BTW....
https://lab.troymeyers.com/flasking/....php?id=MC5519

There is little difference in the maturity of the seed in a split capsule and one that is about to split. At the first sign of yellowing and/or splitting, a capsule can be harvested just as you described. Sometimes waiting too long can cause you to loose lots of seed.

A lot just has to do with the preference of the lab. I prefer to sow dry seed, but many others prefer green capsules. There is just a slight difference in technique. When I started, all the info pointed to green capsules as the easiest. I found this not to be true for me. Plus, sowing dry seed minimizes any risk of virus transmission.

On the flip side, some genera can benefit from harvesting immature seed. Cyps, Paphs, some others can present problems with germination due to vernalization and dormancy issues (and probably a whole lot we don't understand). Taking the developing embryos from an immature seed capsule is one way of avoiding these germination inhibition factors.