Cattleya Angel's Dream Selfed... itself - worth harvesting pod?
 

I probably should have asked this before the pod was so far along and potentially saved the plant the trouble but here I am.

Last summer I got a Cattleya Ange's Dream from SVO and it put out a flower bud in early October. The flower never came to fruition; before it opened, it dried up. I thought the plant had blasted it until the tell tale swelling of the seed pod. As far as I can tell, this was the plant's first bloom.

Because it dried up, the colors were not true and I could not determine that shape and substance but it appears that this plant took more from Mari's Song than Bright Angel.

What are your thoughts - would it be worth my time (or my money) to either try some at home flasking or to have it sent out? I'm not looking to make award winning plants or anything but I would like to get some exeperience with flasked seedling care and deflasking and not waste my time with an inferior plant that selfed itself.

Thoughts?

Looked it up. Highly variable hybrid.

You can have it flasked relatively inexpensively (less than $100 for mother flask + several replates).

However, not knowing the quality of the mother plant (which possibly is a self-pollinator, so it will never produce flowers to enjoy), I would tend to abort this one. Too many unknowns/possible negatives to justify the cost, time & effort in growing potentially worthless seedlings.

If it blooms normally in the future, and has a decent quality flower, you can pollinate it on purpose - or with a another flower that might enhance it in some way.

That is a good point. I will remove the pod. I think it’s far enough along that it might have seeds that I could practice early technique with at hone but I won’t bother sending them out.

Thanks!