M. floribunda has pods
I'm not sure it's worth my time, but my Masdevallia floribunda has two seed pods growing.
I know I don't want to send it out to a flasking lab (unless I can get one super cheap!) - I have no idea what the pollen parent is or where it came from. I did not intentionally fertilize anything and it may have happened before I bought it. However, here I am, with orchid seed pods growing and a desire from an experience perspective to try to grow orchids from seed.
So, I've done a bit of light reading. Most of it involves heavy sterilizing and special boxes, etc, etc. I don't really have the time to spend creating a special lab area nor do I have space in my apartment. Is there a simpler alternative that I could do at home in my kitchen? Is there a "natural" method? Wild orchids don't grow up in flasks though I do know that they require mycorrhizae fungi to germinate. Has anybody tried to grow them more naturally? I wonder if it's possible to "seed" required fungi by taking some media from the parents or even media from outdoors? (I know a few places near my house where wild orchids are growing though I'm not sure about species specifics). I might even experiment since I haven't got any real skin in this game.
Final question: If I don't know when the flowers where pollinated, how do I tell when a pod has matured and is ready to go?
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