Brassavola pod

[KC C]

Three days after I brought my orchids in for the season I noticed that my Brassavola flagellaris x perinii has a pod. The pod is a nice strong green and 1 3/4 inches in circumference. I purchased the flowering plant 2 Aug 06 and did not notice a pod at that time.

My first question is: what is the size of a mature green pod for this plant?

My second question is: does someone want this pod? I did not have any blooming cattleyas during the time this plant was blooming, so unless this is a fairly mature pod and the flower played around before I got it, it is selfed.

[ATester]

Hi KC C,

I'm Aaron, one of the resident flasking nuts. As far as maturation time goes, I just checked my references and I cannot find anything about how long it takes...though I'll keep digging until I find it!

In general there are two ways to do it, one is "dry seed"...that is wait until the seed pod dres out and the seed falls out, or to do "green seed"...that is wait until you have reached 2/3 the maturation time to dry seed, and within a sterile environment, treat and flask the seed. Each way has its own peculiarities.

As for if anyone would be interested in flasking, I'll put my hand up...flasking has become one of my obsessions, though I haven't been doing it for too long.

If you are interested to see a little of what's involed, you may want to take a peek at the thread for the Cattleya breeding project that Julie, aka Piper, has been doing. We flasked that project together, and there is a brief explaination as to what is involved.

the link for that post is:
http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...ead.php?t=4497

Its alot of fun watching seedlings become blooming sized plants!

So let me know if you would be interested...and i don't charge!

[orchid-man]

Aaron Ive been looking but can not find the maturation time for green pod and dry for Lemboglossum bictonense

[ThirdDayOrchids]

Hello KC C
I found in my source 120-150 days for dry seed for brassavola,not any specific brassavola.
jason

[KC C]

Aaron, Thanks for the heads up on the cattleya breeding project--I have been following it, very, very interesting. I would be happy to send my pod to you. I was hoping for an idea of its final size so that I could guess how far along it is now, but I figure I'll just have to measure its girth every few days and watch its color. I'll purchase a heat pack and get a box ready since I'll obviously be shipping in the winter. The plant is a fairly large one--filling a 6 inch plastic net basket and starting to climb out with roots showing around the sides, the basket is filled with sphagnum--so it should have no trouble maintaining the pod. Thank you for offering to care for the children; I would be happy to help upwrite the expense, just let me know.

ThirdDayOrchids, That is the same info I was able to find. I was just hoping someone had more specfic info. Thank you for helping out.

[KC C]

Sorry about contacting you this way, but I don't know how to pm someone. I have enabled all the messaging for myself, so please contact me. I need to mail this green pod to you, the end of its very long "nose" is just starting to yellow.

[IdahoOrchid]

Did this project ever get off the ground? I hope so.

[ATester]

Yes the seed are flasked, but I haven't seen anything yet as far as germination, but I am still keeping an eye on it!