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How to get the seeds

I was at the store the other day and I saw a VFT that sent up a flower stalk. The plant looked pretty bad but somehow it is flowering. I was thinking about buying it to practice for if in the future I want to let some of mine flower. The thing is I don't know what to do. Do I let it go and then keep checking to see if there are seeds or do I need to do something to make it make the seeds? Let me know how easy/hard it is because I might go back and pick it up.
 
Every flower has a male and female part. The anther is the male and the stamen is the female. The pollin resides on the Anther and needs to be transfered to the stamen. Thats when the magic happens and seeds start to form. In the wild this is done by the plants natural polinators. When it visits one flower it picks up the pollin, and when it travels to another flower it hopefully will pollinate the flower. I haven't seen a VFT flower in a long time, and been looking at orchid flowers lately. They are a whole nother ball game. Normaly with most flowers the anthers will be positioned around the stamen which is in the center of the flower. Just remove some of the pollin and apply it to the stamen. The flower will then dies and the ovary located at the base of the flower should begin to swell. When it is ripe it will burst open releaseing the seeds. You need to catch it right before it bursts open to harvest the seeds. You could be lucky and get a spontanious pollination, but that doesn't happen all the time. So unles you want to wait for the pollinater to do it for you, your going to have to pollinate it. Goodluck. I hope you can follow this.
 
Self-polinate it with a (natural bristle) brush or feather. Just stick the thing in the flower, and move it around. It'll get some pollen where it needs to go.

I almost purchased myself a -giant- trapped typical VFT today since it was about to flower.
 
Vfts are always best cross pollinated with another plant. The anthers and stamens are ripe at different times on each flower to try to stop self pollination occurring naturally. You will find that the pollen is ripe first.  The following day the pollen is very degraded and the stamen ripens. You can tell the stamen is ripe because the ends will have a flared look which they don't have when the pollen first ripens. Until the stamen flares any pollination attempt will be unsuccessful. If you have two flowers open together on the same plant self fertilisation is more likely to succeed because you can transfer pollen from a flower with ripe pollen to another flower with a ripe stamen. they are very easy to get to produce fertile seed, you just need to do it right.
 
Do you have to wait till next year or can you plant the seeds immediatly? I want babies now.
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I let my Sarrs flower and just let the seeds fall on thier own. I did not get anything till the following spring. Am I going to have to wait?
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VFT seeds will grow right-a-way. You should get something in about 2 weeks but mine took longer.
 
Kept until next year the seed will likely be too old to germinate. Vft seed should always be sown immediately
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JMurphy97 @ Mar. 14 2006,2:41)]I was at the store the other day and I saw a VFT that sent up a flower stalk. The plant looked pretty bad but somehow it is flowering. I was thinking about buying it to practice for if in the future I want to let some of mine flower. The thing is I don't know what to do. Do I let it go and then keep checking to see if there are seeds or do I need to do something to make it make the seeds? Let me know how easy/hard it is because I might go back and pick it up.
That particular plant is soooooooo stressed out that would die very son anyway.
 
You'd spend more on repotting it in clean medium and nursing it along than the plant is worth. And as Jim says, it will likely die from stress caused by being watered with tap water/fertilizer and insufficient light. If you get it, cut off the flower stalk so it will redirect nutrients into healing instead of seeds and dieing.
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I was at the store the other day and I saw a VFT that sent up a flower stalk. The plant looked pretty bad but somehow it is flowering.

Chances are that it's flowering in response to a) the tissue culture environment / aftereffects, or b) as a "last resort" response that plants have. Some people note declined health of VFTs after they flower, so as Jim said above, the plant probably wont be a very happy camper. Though these plants aren't known for being straightforward!
 
  • #11
Look at it this way. If you let it flower and get seed, but then the plant does you just got all the seed for babies, provided they are firtile. If you cut the flower spike your may get a healthy plant then it stillmay die. I got 3 VFT from wally world that looks pretty decent to be honest. 2 were on clearance for half off and one was reg price of 5 bucks So I spent 10 bucks on 3 plants and 2 are in spike. I planted them in a minibog and left the spikes on. They are in full sun now and so car I havn't seen any sunburn or dieback of leaves and have new leaves growing so I;m going with it. Hopefully will get seed so I can fill out the minibog with typicals. If the plant was cheap I would leave the spike and attempt for seeds. If the plant dies your not out much especialy if the seeds are good.
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JB_OrchidGuy @ Mar. 14 2006,3:27)]The flower will then dies and the ovary located at the base of the flower should begin to swell. When it is ripe it will burst open releaseing the seeds. You need to catch it right before it bursts open to harvest the seeds.
How do you know when this explosion is going to happen?
 
  • #13
What I need to know is when to pick the seeds.
 
  • #14
  • #15
Why don't you try leaf cuttings? Faster way to get plantlets. But if you want to try seeds just for fun...give it a go!
 
  • #16
[b said:
Quote[/b] (PlantAKiss @ May 10 2006,5:56)]Why don't you try leaf cuttings?  Faster way to get plantlets.  But if you want to try seeds just for fun...give it a go!
I've done that. The plants it produces are as small as plants from seeds. I also don't like to disturb healthy plants. I will do cuttings on cultivars. I heard the seeds from cultivars simply make regular VFT's. I would like to expand my collection of things like Red Dragons.
 
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