Cattleya breeding

[raybark]

There probably are cases where a hormone or nutrient boost could make a difference.

Unfortunately, in many subject areas like this, almost all of the research is on food crops, and rarely - if ever - on orchids, and most of us don't have the wherewithal to do any reasonably scientific testing.

[Chris in Hamilton]

Unfortunately, in many subject areas like this, almost all of the research is on food crops, and rarely - if ever - on orchids, and most of us don't have the wherewithal to do any reasonably scientific testing.

When I worked in the greenhouses many years ago experiments were conducted with a minimum of 100 plants for each with or without this or that. We could have as many as 1,000 plants involved in an experiment.

---------- Post Merged at 02:52 PM ----------

It is true that the pollen tubes from a small species may not grow long enough to reach the ovary in a large species. It is probably both a pre-programmed length issue and a not enough onboard resources issue at various times. C. cernua pollen on C. labiata flower would be a possible example. The difference in flower size here is probably not enough to be a major problem, and since the smaller parent has larger ancestors as well it is hard to predict what the pollen is capable of. It isn't necessarily directly in proportion to flower size in a complex hybrid.

There probably are cases where a hormone or nutrient boost could make a difference.

And it can't hurt