My General Lee from Hausermanns

[charlesf6]

After my 3rd year of blooms on my neo falcatta it has left these tubers this summer after the blossoms have dropped. They just stay there and will not go away?

[Shoreguy]

Originally Posted by charlesf6

After my 3rd year of blooms on my neo falcatta it has left these tubers this summer after the blossoms have dropped. They just stay there and will not go away?

They are seed pods. If you don't want to send them away to have cultured to result in hundreds or thousands of seedlings, I suggest you cut them off immediately with a sterile razor blade as seed pod development takes a huge amount of energy from the plant.

Do it now.

[Paul]

If the plant is healthy then you could leave the pods on though there would not be much point if nothing is to be done with the seeds.

You could offer the pods up for trade or postage if there should be any members who might be interested in giving seed culture a go.

[Shoreguy]

Who would want to spend the time and money to culture a seed pod without knowing the pollen parent? It would take considerable ignorance.

For a cost free and effort free exercise, you may want to let it mature, split on its own and collect the powdery seeds on a tissue paper laid below the pods before the grooves open, and then disburse them at the base of various orchids in your possession for a chance that some of the seeds may sprout from symbiotic relationship to organisms in the media. Any plants that may arise could then be relocated once large enough with good roots.

As far as leaving it on if nothing is planned to do with it, totally pointless even if the plant is healthy as it does take resources from the plant.

[Bud]

How exciting! I have never seen a Neo with seed pods. You must have the right bug to pollinate the flowers. There are some orchid labs that will flask that for you. Or maybe some members who have already been flasking seed pods. Do it right away before you know it, the pods will open and spray all the seeds away.

[charlesf6]

I guess I will remove the pods on Saturday, if anyone has an interest in them PM me.

[I have a hard enough time just trying to keep these orchids alive, well and happy let alone an attempt at giving birth to a bunch of offspring. ]

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Shoreguy

Who would want to spend the time and money to culture a seed pod without knowing the pollen parent? It would take considerable ignorance.

Hardly.

First, depending upon what other plants the OP has that were in bloom at the time, It may not be all that difficult to determine parentage. The only plants a neo would have a chance of crossing with would be another member of the vanda alliance. If the OP doesn't have any other vandaceous plants -- particularly none that were in bloom at that time -- then it would have been a selfing. In which case, parentage would be known.

Second, there are folks who have or are considering experimenting with home flasking techniques. Such a person might be more than happy to get a free pod with which to perfect their technique.

The only thing of "considerable ignorance" would be assuming that there is no way anyone would possible want the pods.

To the OP: If you are going to offer up the pods, I'd suggest making a new post titled "free pods" or some such so folks will notice the offer.

[Shoreguy]

Originally Posted by Paul

Hardly.

First, depending upon what other plants the OP has that were in bloom at the time, It may not be all that difficult to determine parentage. The only plants a neo would have a chance of crossing with would be another member of the vanda alliance. If the OP doesn't have any other vandaceous plants -- particularly none that were in bloom at that time -- then it would have been a selfing. In which case, parentage would be known

So does the OP know which other, if any vandaceos plants were in bloom at the time?

Also the pods being immature would require green pod culture, requiring greater expertise than ripe pods. People wishing to experiment with flasking techniques would be far better off begining with ripe pods, not these. I am not saying this to encourage the OP to let the pods mature because as emphasized, pod growing exerts considerable stress on the plant and it has two.

Moreover, I did not say there is no way anyone would want to germinate these pods but only if the parentage could not be determined, something yet to be established. Also insects do not abide by property lines making the issue of parentage even more a problem. Because orchid growing is an infectious hobby, there is a real possibility that in a neighborhood with an outdoor grower, there could be several nearby.

This is my final post on this matter. I've spent considerably more time on it already than originally intended.

[Neodex]

I have been experimenting with neo flasking at home and I can say it's very interesting to witness the development of seeds into seedlings, but it can be frustrating and technically challenging if you don't have the set up for it. I've deflasked my first seedlings this June and they are doing well.

Two points relating to comments above in this thread.

1) The weakening affect on plants carrying pods is not that significant with neos. Yes, on one plant the growth that carried a pod skipped flowering the following season, but for most there is no obvious impact on the plants. Indeed my Hien (red variety) has carried pods for the last three years in succession and this year it threw two spikes from the main growth that carried three pods last year. If the plant is strong and gets adequate light, then there should be no problem. Most Neos seem to be quite tough in this regard.

2) I think the most probable scenario in this case is that the pods were derived from selfing. Some neos are prone to this, my Neo. richardsiana produces pods most seasons, my Shutennou produced a pod after it was tipped onto the floor by one of our cats and my Asahiden produced a pod after I repotted it while in bloom (pot broke), so physical disturbance is sometimes enough to induce self pollination. Of course you can never be certain what you have got, and so personally I wouldn't bother. But just to be pedantic, there is a very, very small probability that you get some interesting offspring by loss of heterozygosity ... a sort of winning the lottery kind of small probability.

For those who are interested in experimenting with DIY flasking, this is what you can expect.
Neo pods develop quite quickly, 5-6 months to maturity and splitting open, which is October/November for mine. When they are mature they turn yellow and split in 1 to 3 days, so you don't get a lot of warning. In flask the seeds germinate in 2-3 weeks after sowing, you can actually see changes at the end of a week with a magnifying glass. By 6 months you generally have the first leaves, and by 9-12 months they have roots and are ready for replating onto growing-on medium. So for vigorous varieties it comes to about 2 years to deflasking, but some can be slower. In that time you need to provide adequate light (14 - 16 h/day) and control temperature between 22 - 25 C. The most tedious thing for me has been preventing the temperature from rising above 26 C during the summer months, although mine seemed not to be affected by short periods up to 29 C, so maybe they are tougher than received wisdom suggests. As for the medium to use, I make my own, but the Chung medium for neos is based on Hyponex fertiliser which is available from one of the propagation vendors in the US, and I can post the recipe if anyone is interested, but don't waste your time with standard media that haven't been verified for propagating neos.

[MattWoelfsen]

Charles, you are in the USA, contact Troy Meyers. He does flasking.

Flasking Home Page

The seed pods your Fūran developed do not take that much energy from your plant. But as others have said, if you are not going to flask the pods, then cut them off as it would then be wasted effort for the plant.

I grow my Fūran outside and have had several plants grow seed pods. That was a surprise as this is the first time they have developed pods.