How old must a phal pod be before you can pick it?

[Silje]

Hi guys.

Here is the thing, I've got a NOID phal that I pollinated about 3 months ago just as a test run for my own seeding and flasking. I really wanna give this a try and although the whole seeding and propagation and preparing of growth medium and whatnot seem like a tedious science experiment, I'm going to give it a try.

Right, so I got this pod and it's on a plant that is not doing very well. In fact, I've managed to over-water it and it's now virtually rootless. *Sigh* And just now when I thought I've got the hang of it. Anyways, it needs to go into the 'hospital box' together with the other rescued plants and I wanna cut the spike with the pod to give it a chance to focus on root production.

So, how old does a pod need to be before the seeds can be sown? Is three months enough for green seed sowing?

[Ray]

Three months, no...probably more like six.

Depending upon the species or hybrids in the cross' background, the time-to-harvest could vary by many weeks.

I have found the following to be very reliable: Be observant! When either end of the capsule (that's the correct term, by the way) begins to slightly yellow, that's the time to harvest it.

[orchidsarefun]

agree with Ray, being observant is the most reliable method.
The rule of thumb for pods/capsule development is that if they make it past 3 months, then there is an excellent chance of seeds being present. The reason for the 3 months - from what I have gathered - is that ( and in layman's terms ) this is around the time the pollen tubes fertilise the seeds in the ovaries. Bad pollen = capsule failure. I can attest that this rule of thumb works, provided the pollen "takes". The seeds then need time to develop.
In your example I can't see the plant expending energy on seed production so it is likely the capsule will abort.....or contain seed that is not viable.