Is this Seed Pod Ready?
 

I found seed pods on a Cymbidium in the teaching greenhouse today. After talking with the director we decided to try to germinate the seeds. I was wondering if these pods were ready to harvest?

Thank you

It's not ready to harvest yet, usually they are ready once they begin to turn yellow.

cyms take about 9 months for greenpod harvest - is this in that ballpark ?

I have no idea.

The orchid collection in the greenhouse has not been the top priority of the curators and I'm not sure when this Cymbidium bloomed, and no one seemed to notice the seed pod before I pointed it out this morning.

There are two seed pods, so it would be possible to harvest one and have the second one as insurance in case it was harvested early.

What you need to do is watch the pod each few days and check each end of the pod for color changes. You want to harvest your pod as its yellowing. There are two ways for you to go in sewing the seeds once you harvest the pod. If the pod has not opened on its own you can sterilize just the pod and not each individual seed inside the pod capsule. If the pod splits the process is just a bit different as each of the seeds must be sterilized. There are some excellent videos on youtube of the procedure. Good luck. Keep us all informed on how your pod and seedlings will be doing.

This is most likely a selfing, but since pollination was not done on purpose, there is no way to know for certain. Thus, there is little value in sowing this seed - unless you want to do it for experimentation or educational sake.

Being that it will be done for a teaching greenhouse that doesn't sell plants the only purpose would be educational. That being said I'm not sure what the greenhouse would do with dozens of little Cyms.

Although I've never really worked with orchid seeds I used to work in a lab where I grew A. thaliana seeds in sterile conditions, and I think I would be able to apply those methodologies to grow orchid seeds.

I'll keep you all posted if the project advances.

And since that IS a "teaching" greenhouse, using the correct terminology would be nice: Orchids have capsules, not pods.