Pollen Collecting

[Piper]

Very cool! Both would produce striking flowers, I suspect. Brassias and Miltonias are both favorites of mine, but I've got the cool growing milts here. (Mass. vs. Florida - there's some logic in that!)

Julie

[montanum]

The little empty gelcaps that you can buy in bulk at a health food store work very well too.

Best,
Ross

[Sue]

BTW, we have some FAQs that might provide some guidance, especially questions 2 and 4 (which has pics!). They're at the top of the Breeding and Hybridizing Forum, along with a couple other helpful stickies. But here's the directly applicable one:

http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...read.php?t=189

[Tindomul1of9]

I didnt know the pollen caps fell off on their own. I thought they had to be taken off by either a person or a pollinator.

[Sue]

I assume your getting that from this sentence:

To extract the pollenia from the anther cap may require tweezers, but sometimes the cap falls right off.

What I meant by this is that sometimes the cap falls right off the pollenia/stipe structure when the pollen are removed from the column, but sometimes the cap remains attached to the pollenia/stipe, and they need to be removed from the cap using tweezers or a toothpick.

Sorry for the confusion!

[Piper]

Hi Sue,

Nice job on the FAQ's! A follow-up one of, "Now what?" would be cool. Basically what to expect after the steamy orchid sex is over. (ie, a good long wait!)

I pollinated two of my standard catts with each other, since the cross is unregistered, and I just turned the anther cap pollen-side-up and stuck it onto the column. I had to try twice, but the 2nd attempt seems to have taken, because both flowers turned off their fragrance within 12 hrs (who needs to attract pollinators if you've been pollinated) and I'm starting to see swelling in the 'spike'.

But later I read that the column actually grows down around the column and I've wondered if with the anther cap there, it might get in the way. Should that make a difference?

Julie

[Tindomul1of9]

I assume your getting that from this sentence:


What I meant by this is that sometimes the cap falls right off the pollenia/stipe structure when the pollen are removed from the column, but sometimes the cap remains attached to the pollenia/stipe, and they need to be removed from the cap using tweezers or a toothpick.

Sorry for the confusion!

That sounds like I read that in a book. But dont the caps stay on unless something takes/pushes them off?