Just returning to this post to take another turn and wondering about some posts.
- badlydrawnboy, Did you post a link?
- FP, "Fertilized" normally is used to refer to feeding the orchids. I can see you mean pollenated the bloom. I'm not an expert but if I wanted to pick a green capsule to sow into flasks, 4 months is enough time for any Phal hybrid or specie to develop viable seed embryos in the capsule. You've got time to give it a little longer but would want to cut it at the first signs of yellow and rush it into the flasks.
If anyone didn't get to the Seed Pod Ripening Times or ORCHID SEED CAPSULE AGE DATA TABLE
here is the link that I again thank Kyle for posting:
SPECIES
It is rather simple to pollenate an orchid bloom. All it takes is a toothpick or other narrow utensil.
If you've done that and it worked, the area from the back of the bloom, the small stem, that connects the bloom to the inflorescence will begin to swell up within a few days. Later you can sow the seed from a green (immature) capsule or from dry seed from a capsule that yellows, then splits open as in nature.
If we want to do dry seed, the time it takes to ripen is not so important so long as we lay eyes on our plants on an almost daily basis. When the green turns to yellow and/or brown the capsule is about to open. Prepare to catch the ?million(s) seeds. Most of us will not want to sow more than a couple thousand of these.
However we want to catch a green capsule before it opens. The main reason we do that is mostly because the green capsule has sterile seed or better described as embryos inside. If we cut it off and take it to the sterile lab or other sterile set up, we hope to transfer the embryos to the sterile flasks. Virtually all of the capsule's contents could be sown into the flasks. There is much less chance of contaminating the seed. One of the best guides to this process is found in the "Orchid Seed Germination Manual" by Hicks. Probably the best $20 I have ever spent on orchids.
That is what is so valuable about the list. It is the most extensive list I've ever seen. We now know how long it takes for the capsule to develop embryos that will survive that transfer to the flask.
Some people leave the flasking to a lab which can do this more reliably and for much less than our time is generally worth.
I do wonder about some of the entries on the list that indicate less time to get dry seed than to harvest a green capsule. (Hnnhh?)
Some people think we should leave the hybridizing to the big orchid producers. Some of the most celebrated orchids were done by hobbyists in search of some result. Others created by the big breeders were accidental successes.
~enjoy!
Lee
lee at classicorchid com
List of orchid seed capsule ripening times?
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