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Heli ionasii seed just harvested

At last the first pod of H.ionasii seed ripened to day , just harvested it , was quite excited about it so thought i mite share , even at my age i still get excited about my Cp's
J

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Awesome! Good luck watching one of the slowest species of one of the slowest growing type of cp grow :lol:
 
Wonderful!

If it's possible I'd like to see some macros of an individual seed.
 
Awesome! Good luck watching one of the slowest species of one of the slowest growing type of cp grow :lol:

Lica not found them to be slow growing at all , mine are quite fast atually , , not a lot of difference in there growth rate to minor or pulchella really , or do you mean from seedlings , that small then yes most helis are painfully slow
J

---------- Post added at 01:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:46 PM ----------

Wonderful!

If it's possible I'd like to see some macros of an individual seed.

yer ok can do , will post when i get back in about a hour or so , may be sooner

J
 
Yeah, my ionasii isnt to slow but it isnt like my neblinae. But seedlings are like watching stones grow :lol: Its luca by the way ;)
 
Congratulations. I have a couple of plants on the way to flowering . . .
 
Awesome!! Have you tried making hybrids with the Helis you have? I can think of a few that would look interesting...
 
Yeah, my ionasii isnt to slow but it isnt like my neblinae. But seedlings are like watching stones grow :lol: Its luca by the way ;)

oopps yep i knew that just my bad typing , my fingers just go to wrong keys all the time ?? ??? :crazy:
agree with slowness of some plants
and will type your name correctly as best i can :-D may use H L instead less room for my mistakes :)

sorry about coming in on your chat there may have made it wores for you ??? hope you get it sorted out


J

---------- Post added at 02:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------

Congratulations. I have a couple of plants on the way to flowering . . .

Great stuff David , good luck with the pollination , keep that pollen fresh , but you all ready know that
J
 
wow John. that's a pretty good return for seed. about how much seed do you usually find per capsule? does this also vary from species to species?
 
  • #10
Yea, I dont think it is rust spots, more like the whole humidity debacle, Thats the last time I put the humidifier on low, at least the new growth looks good, just the old leaves stressed.
 
  • #11
Awesome!! Have you tried making hybrids with the Helis you have? I can think of a few that would look interesting...

yes i have played around with some hybrids , got a few coming up interesting ones , complex crosses , but will need to wait till next year for more flowers and newer plants to flower before i get nicer hybrids
J

---------- Post added at 03:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:56 PM ----------

wow John. that's a pretty good return for seed. about how much seed do you usually find per capsule? does this also vary from species to species?

Hi yes its not bad for the first one , of ionasii that is , it can vary so much , from pod to pod, pollination procedures usually dictate your seed numbers, like freshness, application and the timing of the pollination , some like minor x hetro will accept any pollen any time ,with in its time pollination frame, have got up to 80 seeds from one pod in that hybrid and some like nutans may be only 10 or 12 seed up to 30 to none too , but others like minor .pulchella , ionasii, nutans , all seem to be very or more fussy about how you do it and the freshness of the pollen , self pollinating specie seemed to be harder than another hybrid pollen ?? it seems any how , found the hybrid to hybrid crossing easy than specie crossing or self pollination
if that make sense . lot more to it , but hope that may tell a short info form a long list of details i have !!
J

---------- Post added at 03:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:07 PM ----------

Wonderful!

If it's possible I'd like to see some macros of an individual seed.


ok did some pic's best i could see how you go with these
J

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  • #12
Very nicely done John....
 
  • #13
John,
Av has shared his tuning fork process of pollination - is that also the process you use? Any helpful details that you've learned along the way? (my apologies if I've missed this somewhere).

I've gotten frustrated with my few efforts and realize (like many things) that I'll need to take the time to perfect my approach. In the meantime, I've cut 6-8 stalks in the past month to keep the plants from wasting their energy.
 
  • #14
Nice closeups of the seeds - thanks! :)
 
  • #15
The tuning fork works like magic for me when the time is right. I just gently fold the petals back to get access; bounce the fork on the floor and apply. The pollen comes out like a little snow storm.

My issues comes after catching it... I’ve been using a black colored cdrom case. The black works perfect visually but the surface has a slight texture to it which wants to hold onto the pollen. Likewise there is a rib along the edge of the case that prevents me from efficiently scraping it off.

I would like to find a semi flexible, super smooth black plastic with no rib.... and maybe use a scraper made of the same material to herd the pollen into the micro centrifuge tubes. I need to go to a large craft store and see what I can find that might work.

Between the cdrom case and getting it into the tubes, I'm losing a good 10-20% in the process.

I'd like to hear what everyone else is using... :)
 
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  • #16
yep Butch has summed it up quite nicely , we do our pollen gathering very similar , I found the specimen jars you get from the Dr with yellow lids very good to collect the pollen ,have tried paper , cups , plastic sheets , but the lid of these jars sits nicely under the flower ,you can hold it close to the pollen dust. for collection.
the pollen is very fine , and breeze around will blow it away , so do it with no wind or air movement around .
you need to be very vigilant at watching the flower ripen , the pollen only can be extracted when the colour of the anther is past yellow , to early no pollen to late no pollen , i find the best way is to test the anther once a day or even twice a day when it looks ready , usually its a yellowy light brown colour when ready , as soon as its brown or dried its to late , your window of opportunity is only 4 to 7 day usually Less , they seem to release pollen randomly or from only one anther at a time , not had 2 or 3 release at once ever , don't know if Any one else has had a different experience with it or not ??
interesting to know
Butch ??
John
 
  • #17
I concur....

Initally the anthers are green and perpendicular to the pistil. As they ripen they drop down, and become parallel with the pistil. Their color also turns from green to bright yellow, and finally brown. When they are in place and no more green is observed the pollen can usually be harvested. You are looking for parallel to pistil, plump and bright canary yellow. At this point start trying to harvest.

The window of opportunity is small for both harvesting the pollen and pollinating the stigma.

I would agree, I have noticed that the individual anthers ripen at different rates. But they all seem to ripen within a 2-3 day window of time.... so its not a big variance imho. (I have to be honest, I've not really studied this variable.)

This would seem to make sense, I would think it would enable multiple bee's to distribute the pollen.
 
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