Wilsonara x Phalaenopsis??
 

Hi everyone, I'm new to the boards and very excited to learn and grow! I have about 10 orchids right now, of which I will post photos of in my profile soon.

I recently learned about pollinating and tried a random cross (because I guess you never know, right!?) But it took. Not to say it won't shrivel up and fall off anyway, but it still took! I pollinated a Wilsonara Aloha Sparks Halloween with a plain white Phalaenopsis. The seed pod is green and swelling and the bloom is shriveling. How long before I'll know if it genuinely worked and has anyone successfully crossed these two before? I was told by an 'expert' at an orchid society that this could never happen because they're too different.

Thanks all. :waving

---------- Post added at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------

I just read that even though a seed pod may form, you won't know if the seed is viable until the time comes. Hopeful.

I would agree that will not take..........but who knows for 100%, I'm at 99.99999% :)
If it makes it past 10 days, then the next hurdle is roughly at 3 months. Make it over that and its certain to be OK - not to say that any seed is viable.
It can fail at any time between 10 and 90 days too.

The cross won't produce any viable seeds, unless you happened to accidentally self pollinate in the process of attempting this cross.

You'll need to stick to plants in the same alliances for these kinds of crosses, even then there's no guarantee when it comes to intergenerics. In other words, cross the phal with other vandaceous species/hybrids, or cross the Wilsonara with other oncidium alliance species/hybrids.

I tend to agree with the above, but IF it does work, I want one :)

I would be less surprised to see a successful dog x cat hybrid.

:agree:

I also thought that perhaps you accidentally self pollinated the receiving flower.

Generally speaking, crosses can be made within an alliance.

I have heard of some (probably rare) successful out of alliance crosses, but they were from the same subtribe.

Being an orchid in the plant kingdom is comparable to being, say, a mammal in the animal kingdom - only the very closest related species can cross breed.

Thanks everyone! It has produced a seed pod so I'll just see what happens. If by some crazy chance the seeds are viable, I'll be the first to let you know!

---------- Post added at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 PM ----------

ha! You got it.

While some odd couplings have worked (such as Phaius x Cymbidium), I have never seen a monopodial x sympodial. They are flat out incompatible.

To avoid self-pollination when you make a cross, always remove the pollen from the intended pod bearing flower first.

Just so everyone knows, it's not an accidental self-pollination. I did remove the pollen from it before I placed the pollen from the white Phal inside.

---------- Post added at 10:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 AM ----------

I tried to post a link to the photo but I'm having newbie issues and keep getting a "post denied" message. You can look at it in my album if you like. I believe it's been about 3 weeks since it was pollinated. What I did was swap the pollen on both plants so there isn't a question of self pollination. The phal bloom fell off with no pod formation. The wilsonara produced a pod. Now the waiting game to see how long it lasts! I'll play some music for it. ;)

Interesting.