Pollinating experiment

[wetfeet101b]

I just noticed something interesting on this dendrobium.
Before I pollinated the flowers, the cane had the existing spike with open flowers and two new emerging spikes that were less than an inch long.

After I pollinated some of the flowers and some ovaries are starting to swell, the new spikes on that cane all dried up.
The new spikes on the other canes (not pollinated) are still alive and growing.

Do you think that the death of the new spikes were a result of the pollination?
Perhaps the cane decided that it no longer needed to produce new flowers for the season since the first batch of flowers has done their job already?
Or perhaps it aborted the new spikes in order to focus energy on feeding the seed pods?


Also, I took some pollen from a couple of flowers but did not pollinate them in return.
Those flowers also have dried up and fallen. I'm thinking that this is because there is no more pollen in those flowers, the plant decided to drop them in order to prevent those barren flowers from diverting potential pollinators away from the viable flowers.

Interesting stuff

~John

[Korxi]

.

Do you think that the death of the new spikes were a result of the pollination?
Perhaps the cane decided that it no longer needed to produce new flowers for the season since the first batch of flowers has done their job already?
Or perhaps it aborted the new spikes in order to focus energy on feeding the seed pods?


Also, I took some pollen from a couple of flowers but did not pollinate them in return.
Those flowers also have dried up and fallen. I'm thinking that this is because there is no more pollen in those flowers, the plant decided to drop them in order to prevent those barren flowers from diverting potential pollinators away from the viable flowers.

Interesting stuff

~John

On the aborted spikes issue I think your second theory is correct, it focuses the energy, but then again why do the other spikes not dry up?

I also think you are correct about the pollen and in that case I've noted that flowers from which the pollen has recently been taken seem to have a smaller chance of sucessfully being pollinated - perhaps because there's some chemical reaction taking place from the minute the pollen is detached? Or perhaps it was just coincidences.. In any case I'm now taking the pollen from one flower and pollinating another flower that still has it's pollen attached - just to be sure

Christian

[IdahoOrchid]

Noid seedlings make great gifts for society and online friends!!!

[Pete]

korxi-it is most likely a combination of both of your guesses.. it is both wanting to focus its energy to the new capsules and potetially not needing any more pollination.. also you are correct about pollen-less flowers.. they senesce very fast once pollen is gone.

[wetfeet101b]

Ok, it looked like all three seed pods were swelling at a good rate. I decided to cut away two pods and keep the biggest pod.
I did not want to risk having the plant struggle to feed all three pods.

I'll take pictures tomorrow.

BTW, upon further scouring the www, this dendrobium looks very similar to plants advertised as Den. Emma Blue. But that hybrid is not in the RHS database.
I wonder if that name is just a local nursery's trade name that was never registered.

~John

[Korxi]

I had one where the lable said Emma pink.. It wasn't registered either. I think they're just pet names for some complex hybrinds from the Netherlands

Christian

[wetfeet101b]

Here is the pod as of 09/08/2007:

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Growing well!

Cheers,
BD

[wetfeet101b]

Here's the pod as of 09/30/2007:
Its really starting to plump up.


It still has a long way to go since I read that this type of dendrobium usually takes 120+ days to reach maturity.

~John

[lansrose]

John
After that what is the next step?