pollen question

[pancakefactory]

hey guys, I was wondering if there is a "shelf life" to the pollen in Phals. I would like to store some pollen for some of my other breeds that are not blooming at similar times. do these pollen balls go bad a day later after sitting?

[camille1585]

I may be totally wrong, but I think the shelf life of Phal pollen is not very long. What I do know is that if you want to successfully store pollen it first needs to be dried (to avoid mold) before being packed in paper then a container of some sort and refrigerated. As to the proper way to do this, I'm not sure. Hopefully someone else will answer with the specifics, otherwise the info is probably somewhere in the forums.

[pancakefactory]

well i have been storing pollen from several of my phals and my oncidiom, and i havent tried using any of it yet but i want to save the pollen from my oncidiom and use it with my giant white moth. i hope this works : P

[orchidsarefun]

found this. Its invaluable....

http://www.orchidsaustralia.com/download_genustab.pdf

So, be aware of the crosses that have been made - some may not be possible. You are going to think your pollen storage didn't work but the real reason may well be that the intergeneric wasn't possible.
If anything does work, let us know as I am also wrestling with how to successfully store pollinia.

[camille1585]

Phalaenopsis x Oncidium will not work, the plants are too radically different. Crossing species of a same genus works, crossing genera of a same family can also work, and in some cases orchids of similar families, but not between 2 very different families. Phals can be crossed with vandaceous orchids, but that's pretty much it from what I know.

[pancakefactory]

i always thought vandas and phals seemed so similar! believe this, my mother in law actually has a vanda in her dining room and this vanda was inside of a very large fish bowl. She still does not know it is an orchid.

[roby]

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/Plant-s...ms/orchidgenus

possible combinations