How to pollenate the flowers??

[Tindomul]

Hi all,

I've got under my stewardship a Hybrid Dendrobium, Cane Orchid (I'm not sure if thats the name or the name of the Orchid or the company??) It was brought to me from the Home Depot. ANyway, its blooming like crazy so I guess its happy :?
I was wondering how to go about pollinating those flowers.
I wanna take it one step at a time, so actually growing from seeds will be a question I will ask after.
Thanks,

Here are some pics:





And this is another Orchid I'm caring for.

[Ray]

Before "selfing" the plant, you should consider what you'd be getting into and whether you really want to get that deep into it.

Orchid seed in nature has to be infected by a fungus in order to germinate. In "captivity" they need to be sown onto a nutrient-bearing substrate - often agar-based - in a sterile environment. In the flask, it may take as much as six months for the seed to germinate, and after they have actually begun to form protocorms and then later begin cell differentiation, they are then replated onto a different nutrient-bearing substrate, again in a sterile environment, and then they are grown on for as much as a few years before the tiny seedling can be removed from the flask and placed in community pots of many seedlings.

After spending a year or two in that community pot, the seedlings might be big enbough for individual tiny pots. Then you have to grow them onward and upward, and in the case of a cane-type dendrobium being grown in the home, it would probably be several years - ten maybe, from pollination - before they will be large enough to bloom.

I do some breeding, but I harvest the capsules and shoot them onto a lab for culturing, typically getting back something in the neighborhood of 1000-5000 seedlings to raise...

[Tindomul]

Well as they say, theres no job that takes longest as the one thats never started. So get me crackin! I work for the biology dept as a lab tech, which is by the way the current location of the orchid, my lab.
I've got access to agar of all types, autoclaves for sterilization and test tubes, and all sorts of materials. I'm not an impatient man and full of curiosity. But as I said in the last post, one step at a time. This would be a nice way to keep myself occupied during dull times, and ofcourse a wake up note when it has grown up to tell me I've wasted too much time in my current job, haha. (If the orchid is all grown up, that means I've been in this job way too long).

[littlefrog]

Just to add to the fine advice of Ray, the pictured plant is most certainly not a dendrobium. It is an oncidium. Probably Sharry Baby "Sweet Fragrance".

The second plant is indeed a dendrobium. No idea what the cross is though.

But, don't let that stop you. If you want to play with seeds, go ahead and set a capsule. Take a flower or two off the plant and dissect them. The pollinia will be obvious (I hope), and at the tip of the column (the protrusion in the center). Most times pollinia are covered by an anther cap. Take the pollinia off of a flower (with a toothpick, or a pin). What you have left is a socket where the pollinia were, and immediately behind that (proximally, towards the center of the flower) a 'wall'. That has a fancy name too, don't worry about it. The other side of that wall is where the pollina are placed, this is the stigma. It should be slightly sticky. Take a pollinium (or two), and place them on the stigma of a flower that is still attached to the plant. If they don't stick, use a drop of honey or wet them with some spit.

You want to use a reasonably fresh flower as the pollen acceptor. If you do it right, the flower will shrivel and the ovary (everything behind the flower) will swell up. Eventually this will ripen, and split, revealing your seeds which will be quite small and probably mostly on the floor by this time.

Different orchid flowers are constructed slightly differently, although they all have the same general arrangment of parts. The column should always contain both pollen and stigma (except in a cycnoches or catasetum, for example, which are weirdos...). Sometimes the flower will shrivel almost instantly after pollination, sometimes it hangs on for quite a while. Capsules ripen at differing times for different genera.

Naming... You should put a tag on any cross. And list it as as pod (the plant carrying the capsule) x pollen. Remember that as ladies first. Always put a date of pollination on your tag. Hang the label right from the ovary, so it doesn't get lost.

All that said, feel free to set some capsules (not too many, you can kill plants this way). Feel free to germinate some of the seeds in the laboratory, and perhaps even replate the protocorms. But I wouldn't try to grow out any of the progeny. Not on this cross anyway. For that, make sure you start with plants with proper identification. There are enough no name plants in the world. Don't worry about making a 'stupid' cross. Yes, it is possible. But that is how we learn. Of course it is also nice to do some research ahead of time, can save a few years of effort.

[Tindomul]

Thanks, that is a great first step which I will undertake on Monday assuming I have time. One problem though, all the flowers have bloomed and have been around for more than a week. Are they too old?

In any case, there is a third Orchid, also I think tagged as a dendrobium. It had big white flowers. The ovary seems to be swollen, I believe the botany proff. pollinated it while showing it to the class.

Thanks again, and thanks to Ray too for the good advise and all the warnings.

[littlefrog]

Depends on the flowers. Doesn't matter much for most orchids. You want to use a flower in good condition, not one that is starting to brown out and get droopy.

[nanners]

I'm doing the same thing i have already polinated my flowers and they are swelling at the moment but what is all this talk about capsules, and protocorms, progeny?? isn't there a fast and easy way to do this and not take so long i mean if the business market can do it so fast why cant we? what do i or dang will i need to germinate these seeds and how do i get my hands on it? i have a tank and a way to keep the heat and humidity as high as 100% or as low as 60% what else will i need to do and or accomplish to keep these babies from dieing on me?

[ghosoff]

Hey how is everything going ya'll I am new to this forum but on the same stuation I am trying to polinate some orchids I have but I dont know when they have been polinated so what are signs that I should look for and a picture would be of great help and also I have all phalaenopsis species so if I breed it with anothoer of the same species how long will the capsule take till full size?? Thanks alot !!

[ghosoff]

Hey but after I polinated them they seemed to shrivel up and some got more of a green color (vivid) i guess!!

[Gin]

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