How old must a phal pod be before you can pick it?
 

Hi guys.

Here is the thing, I've got a NOID phal that I pollinated about 3 months ago just as a test run for my own seeding and flasking. I really wanna give this a try and although the whole seeding and propagation and preparing of growth medium and whatnot seem like a tedious science experiment, I'm going to give it a try.

Right, so I got this pod and it's on a plant that is not doing very well. In fact, I've managed to over-water it and it's now virtually rootless. *Sigh* And just now when I thought I've got the hang of it. Anyways, it needs to go into the 'hospital box' together with the other rescued plants and I wanna cut the spike with the pod to give it a chance to focus on root production.

So, how old does a pod need to be before the seeds can be sown? Is three months enough for green seed sowing?

Three months, no...probably more like six.

Depending upon the species or hybrids in the cross' background, the time-to-harvest could vary by many weeks.

I have found the following to be very reliable: Be observant! When either end of the capsule (that's the correct term, by the way) begins to slightly yellow, that's the time to harvest it.

agree with Ray, being observant is the most reliable method.
The rule of thumb for pods/capsule development is that if they make it past 3 months, then there is an excellent chance of seeds being present. The reason for the 3 months - from what I have gathered - is that ( and in layman's terms ) this is around the time the pollen tubes fertilise the seeds in the ovaries. Bad pollen = capsule failure. I can attest that this rule of thumb works, provided the pollen "takes". The seeds then need time to develop.
In your example I can't see the plant expending energy on seed production so it is likely the capsule will abort.....or contain seed that is not viable.