Larry,

The pick-up adhesive on your toothpick needs to be less sticky than the
stigma gel... use your saliva instead of stigma gel ON the toothpick. Once
the pollen makes contact in the stigma... don't pull the toothpick quickly
out straightaway, "spin it out" gently. That's always been my technique
for insuring the best and most thorough sexual "union".

On many occasions I have taken a razor blade in cutting oversized pollen
down to size to suit the female parent and find it works well. Vanda pollen
inserted into Neofinetia falcata flowers often needs to be trimmed down to a
smaller size.

I have also snapped back (ie not broken off) a flower's lip to gain better
access to the reproductive areas with no detrimental affects.

When working on pollinating flowers I always wear a flip-up headband-type
jeweler's magnifying glasses. This is precision work and guaranteeing that
no "original" pollen gets sloppily left behind on removal from the female
parent is important in this process... a selfing is my absolute last resort
only undertaken when I can not find a sib pollen to use in a cross. Many
hybrid crosses on Brassavola nodosa turn out to be selfings when a few of
the female parent's tiny pollinia get mistakenly left behind on what should
have been a thorough removal job initially.

Mick
HBI, Producers of Fine Orchids in Flask
www.OrchidFlask.com

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"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
news

Pollinating Reed-Stem Epidendrums (Small Flowers).

CLIP