Pollination myth or fact?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

@ The Orchid Boy:

I found the answer to your original question in a rather unexpected way...

I have a 2 volume set of books written by Dr. Joseph P. Arditti called Micropropagation of Orchids (second edition), and I happened to leaf through it this morning because I was having trouble sleeping and I got bored.

Guess what...

On page 655 of volume I, there is a section that discusses a rather unusual intergeneric cross between Doritis pulcherrima and Kingiella philippinensis in which the intergeneric name is called Doriella.

Well - our good Hawaiian friend W. W. Goodale Moir was mentioned as the one who was responsible for this intergeneric cross.

In the first paragraph of page 655, in volume I of Micropropagation of Orchids (second edition), Dr. Joseph P. Arditti states, (I boldfaced the sections of the paragraph that was the most pertinent and underlined certain words and phrases that should emphasize the point of the paragraph):

"W. W. Goodale Moir was an orchid breeder in Hawaii who had a penchant for indiscriminately cross pollinating orchids across generic and species lines. As a result he produced many hybrids, a number of them involving more than one genus. To explain his successes, he formulated unusual, unscientific and silly theories, one of them being that phases of the moon somehow affected fruit set in orchids. In fact the reason for his successes was simply the exceedingly large number of crosses he made. It was inevitable that some of his innumerable crosses would produce interesting hybrids..."

So to answer your question directly this time, with no bs, the true answer to your original question is that the whole moon phase thing is a complete myth and it should not be believed one bit.

End of discussion, hopefully once and for all!!!


Btw, I came across this rather accidentally. I actually wanted to find out whether or not orchids in the genus Huntleya had a set of protocols for being cloned. I couldn't find any protocols for cloning Huntleya, so I leafed through the section talking about Disa, then Diuris. Right after the section talking about how to clone Diuris, I found page 655 that talks about the intergeneric cross, Doriella - the hybrid W. W. Goodale Moir made.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

End of discussion, hopefully once and for all!!!

Finally, thanks Philip!! Now maybe we can do away with this silly idea once and for all.

[orchidsarefun]

"On page 655 of volume I, there is a section that discusses a rather unusual intergeneric cross between Doritis pulcherrima and Kingiella philippinensis in which the intergeneric name is called Doriella.
Well - our good Hawaiian friend W. W. Goodale Moir was mentioned as the one who was responsible for this intergeneric cross in which the intergeneric name is called Doriella."


According to OrchidWiz, this cross - Phal Tiny - was registered and originated in 1966 by Rod McLellan Co, based in California. It is also listed in the International Orchid Register and confirms the above.
In fact this is not an intergeneric cross as Kingiella philippinensis is commonly known as Phal Deliciosa ( per OrchidWiz ) and Doritis is now Phalaenopsis.

Which data is correct ?

Mr Goodale Moir registered (as an originator ) an astounding 1202 orchids, with many AOS awards. After so many I think he was entitled to as many "silly theories" as he believed in ! After reviewing the list of orchids, in my opinion, I think he was a real pioneer in orchid hybridising.
Also, as food for thought - contrast this record with your reference expert....I can't find ONE orchid that Mr Arditti registered.....maybe he was too busy writing encyclopedias.. ( that's a lighthearted joke )

.....or probably teaching

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

"On page 655 of volume I, there is a section that discusses a rather unusual intergeneric cross between Doritis pulcherrima and Kingiella philippinensis in which the intergeneric name is called Doriella.
Well - our good Hawaiian friend W. W. Goodale Moir was mentioned as the one who was responsible for this intergeneric cross in which the intergeneric name is called Doriella."


According to OrchidWiz, this cross - Phal Tiny - was registered and originated in 1966 by Rod McLellan Co, based in California. It is also listed in the International Orchid Register and confirms the above.
In fact this is not an intergeneric cross as Kingiella philippinensis is commonly known as Phal Deliciosa ( per OrchidWiz ) and Doritis is now Phalaenopsis.

Which data is correct ?

Mr Goodale Moir registered (as an originator ) an astounding 1202 orchids, with many AOS awards. After so many I think he was entitled to as many "silly theories" as he believed in ! After reviewing the list of orchids, in my opinion, I think he was a real pioneer in orchid hybridising.
Also, as food for thought - contrast this record with your reference expert....I can't find ONE orchid that Mr Arditti registered.....maybe he was too busy writing encyclopedias.. ( that's a lighthearted joke )

.....or probably teaching

Well...

The book Dr. Arditti wrote was originally written quite a while back, (I don't know the exact year the first edition was originally published). Orchid names have changed frequently since the time Dr. Arditti first published these books, so I'm not too surprised that some names are different.

To tell you the truth, I don't really know the answer to your question. I'm sure with a little more digging than what has already been done, there will be more information that can reveal the truth.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

I'm sure with a little more digging than what has already been done, there will be more information that can reveal the truth.

Na, I think you got it. Most people reading this thread do too.