I so want to learn to do this, I saw a video on how to hand pollinate a phalaenopsis & it looks so easy, it will be awhile before my rescue phals grow spikes though.
congrats, your pods have passed the 3 month milestone.
Its a pity you don't have the orchid registered names as I could help look up/try to work out the ploidy of the parents. For example a 3N phal can never be a successful pollen donor as its pollen is infertile - which btw can mean the pod/capsule makes it to dehiscence but the resultant seed would never germinate.
Generally speaking all species phals are 2N, and hybrids either 3N or 4N. The topic is fairly complicated with not much info available but ploidy incompatibility is a primary reason for seed infertility. I don't want to discourage you as seed propagation can be exciting, but just be aware of this issue.
Hi Bazinga, I pollinated my cream yellow Phal a bit over a week ago and it already seems to grow 2 seed capsules. If both keep doing fine i'd be happy to trade one for another colour.
Does anybody know if there are restrictions for sending seeds???
I have got seeds shipped from Thailand and some other place (forgot where) with no problems. Also, you are from Canada, same as me, so we wouldn't have any problems trading seeds.
Orchidsarefun, I don't get discouraged from reading things. I like to learn as much as I can and if it works it works, if not oh well try again. The orchids I have were bought from a garden store up here in Canada, so I would believe they are NoIDs.
great so let's keep in touch. I'll let you know when my capsules look ready.
Have you ever successfully flasked before? I am looking for someone that knows the process.
In winter I would like to bring some seeds from my mexican orchids but I have never done this before. The Phal is my test but I rather don't take chances with the mexicans and leave it to someone experienced.