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orchid seeds...

schloaty

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Staff member
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Hi folks,
Can you guys tell me if orchids are male/female or hermaphrodidic? I have a couple in bloom, and I was wondering about the viability of getting orchid seeds...

Is it even worth it?
 
www.troymeyers.com has some good info on pollinating. Basically, you have to transefer the pollinia (it's saclike, and doesn't brsh off like on most plants) to the anther (under the anther cap). I'd recommend taking the pollinia from one flower, and putting it on another flower that hasn't had the pollinia removed. Usually, I end up removing the anthercap with the pollinia, and the flower ends up drying afterward, so I use it to pollinate a different flower. It's really not hard, once you find a decent picture and find the anthercap and the pollinia. Just shove the pollinia up under the anther cap on another flower, and a little less than half of them pollinated will produce pods.

I use a plastic toothpick with a 'brush' end to pollinate them. Q-tips don't seem to work, since the pollina doesn't rub off on them.

Seed germination can be tricky. If you have a species orchid, and a picture of it in bloom, you can send it to Troy Meyers, and get one flask from it for free if they get it to grow. Otherwise, you can try tissue culture. Or just planting the seeds (terrestrials are supposedly the easiest, but given the number of seeds in a seedpod, you've always got a chance at a few seedlings...)

Good luck.
 
I'm pretty sure they are hermaphroditic because they have a stigmatic surface and pollinia, both located under the anther cap. I've never done this myself, but people looking to create hybrids would take pollen off one flower and insert it into the flower of the other orchid. I would assume that if you wanted more seeds of the same orchid, then you would insert the pollen into another flower on the same orchid.
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Thanks c123,
I don't think I can use the flasking services, though, because the I just have generic hybrids, not species. However, I think that does help me with the pollination!
 
Why couldn`t you use the flasking service? I here usualy you do use hybrids for these services.???
 
Almost all of Troy Meyers flask ing is of seeds from species and certainly his free service is restricted to species. But there are other flasking services that will work with whatever a customer wants to send them, whether from species or hybrids. Given the time and cost, few people make the effort for unnamed plants.
 
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>The sex of orchid flowers depends on the species in question. Some have separate male and female flowers, such as Catasetum, but most have flowers that contain both male and female organs together.</span>
 
For those of you intersted the terms are Monoecious and Dioecious.
 
You know....now that you mention it....I think I know who to call! A buddy from the NECPS does flasking as a hobby.
 
  • #10
Hello eveyone!

Just to continue on the topic, I've done flasking for quite a few years and it is quite fun to do. One learns a lot about pollination, seed germination schedules, growing medium (agar-based) and so forth. Seeing your own plant blooming is quite a nice experience!

The only problem associated with the whole process is that it takes TIME. Big time TIME!  For the majority of species, the wait time is between 4 and 7 years. In some cases, like in the case of Paph. stonei, it is reputed to take up to 12 years to bloom! Wow, a lot can happen in the meantime!

The beauty of each seed pod is the extremely high number of viable seeds produced. If all grown successfully, they will take over a greenhouse within a few years!  I could talk forever about this topic but if you do have more questions, don't hesitate to write back. I'll forward you to a few good sources for info.

Have fun!

smile.gif
 
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