Oncidium x Tolumnia breeding adventures

[tmoney]

hahah!! you guys (gals?, i don't even know any more) are funny....i suppose all us plant nerds are a bit off...

definitely don't let anybody try to tell you not to do or try breeding (that's more for any other readers who may come here in the future!). but for sure the boss and i are now at the point of having to make big decisions about our future with all of this.

dorchid has taken a probably more intelligent approach to figure out the hard, expensive part of the process. and lets face it, tissue culture is the future of the plant world and will be a good skill to have when we are living in bubbles on mars.

its also a more financially wise way to spend time probably just because other people can come to you for work. and the space requirements are much less per unit. shipping per unit is much less for obvious reasons. and i do really believe/hope that home breeding is back on the rise, which means more of us will need good labs (hopefully). honestly, the search to find a lab held our progress up for over a year. so, i think dorchid is on a good track and doing something they love that will hopefully see increased demand in the coming years.

sorry, you can tell where my brain is on the whole breeding thing, i immediately start panicking about what we are gonna do with our seedlings and how we can start legally selling plants...the not so fun parts about breeding!

oh, and im pretty sure our breeding stock is all line-bred stock. obviously the complex hybrids that we use are TC. the paphs are all line bred, seed grown and here it seems the species are pretty stable and breed true, but time will tell, hopefully....plus your comment on the flower size...yeah, you shoulda started with cats or something with bigger flowers!!!!

[greenhouseFrog]

Welp…neither the Oncidium Sharry Baby x Tolumnia Jairak Firm nor the Tolumnia Jairak Firm x Oncidium Sharry Baby crosses progressed further than the swelling of the columns—all of their flowers that I tried pollinating have withered and fallen!

While slightly miffed, I didn’t come up entirely short—I made a couple of other attempts: Oncostele x Tolumnia and the other way around(Tolumnia as the seed parent, Oncostele as the pollen parent).

Oncostele parent

Tolumnia parent

Like the initial cross of Tolumnia x Sharry Baby, the flowers I tried pollinating on the Tolumnia didn’t progress past swelling of the column and withered away, but the Oncostele seems like it may be developing some capsules!

Potential capsule A

Potential capsule B—in addition to planning for a spare capsule, this was also an experiment on how long the window for pollination would stay open: the plant was knocked over and several flowers had their anther cap and pollinarium removed on the way down—this flower was pollinated 8 days after hitting the deck and losing its stuff! This may be entirely unremarkable, but I’ve been under the impression that, as a rule of thumb, as soon as a pollinarium is removed, dehiscence of the flower is soon to follow?

If these develop, I’d be curious to look inside of them but I’m keeping my expectations realistic!

“The only way to get it right is to get it wrong every step of the way there.”—Somebody

[greenhouseFrog]

Welp…no success this time around, but that doesn’t come as a surprise. The majority of the Oncidiums, their intergeneric hybrids, and Tolumnias(and their intergenerics) in my collection bloom a few times a year, so it’s not like I’ll be waiting long for the next attempt.

Back to the drawing board

[Waterdog111]

I do the likes mostly to let the people know that Ive read their post and appreciate it and all, I do like these type threads!

[greenhouseFrog]

Originally Posted by Waterdog111

I do the likes mostly to let the people know that Ive read their post and appreciate it and all, I do like these type threads!

I do the exact same thing, WD—I think of it as a positive acknowledgment!

Hopefully I can keep this thread more active as time goes forward!

[Waterdog111]

[tmoney]

keep your head up and keep trying! orchid breeding is one of the most humbling hobbies that i have ever had. teaches a lot, and keeps us grounded better luck next time...

[greenhouseFrog]

Originally Posted by tmoney

keep your head up and keep trying! orchid breeding is one of the most humbling hobbies that i have ever had. teaches a lot, and keeps us grounded better luck next time...

Thank you for the continued encouragement, Travis—best thing for me is to not to end up like Icarus and his flight by keeping things(including my expectations) simple in the interim. Like you’d mentioned, even if there wasn’t success to be had at first, there was still a lesson to be learned through the attempts—at this point in time, any experience is good experience for me!

Meanwhile, Mother Nature is doing it all day like it ain’t nothing out in the yard—this Epidendrum radicans gets no attention from me, so it must have had visitors!

[Roberta]

Hummingbirds LOVE those bright reed-stem Epidendums! (They also self-pollinate pretty easily) The Epis also don't seem to be picky about where they germinate... I have found them growing in other pots.

[estación seca]

OB member epiphyte78 has described scattering reed stem Epidendrum seeds on his trees, and having some sprout.