View Single Post
  #3   Report Post  
Old 09-05-2003, 08:08 PM
Larry Dighera
 
Posts: n/a
Default Pollinating Reed-Stem Epidendrums (Small Flowers).

On Fri, 9 May 2003 01:26:27 -0400, "Mick Fournier"
wrote:

Larry,

The pick-up adhesive on your toothpick needs to be less sticky than the
stigma gel...


That would make good sense.

use your saliva instead of stigma gel ON the toothpick.


Ah, the voice of experience. Thanks for sharing your secrets.

Once the pollen makes contact in the stigma... don't pull the toothpick quickly
out straightaway, "spin it out" gently.


Good point. I think it was the tenacity of the stigmatic gel that was
giving me trouble.

That's always been my technique
for insuring the best and most thorough sexual "union".


It sounds like a very "satisfing" technique for all but those who
demand rough treatment. :-)

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.


My concern in trimming pollen to fit is, that the presumably
one-to-one correspondence ratio between the number of pollen "grains"
and number of ovules will be so mismatched as to result in a
significant increase in unfertilized ovules. The other issue that
comes to mind is the exposed cut surface becoming infected by
bacteria/fungi. If you report success, these are apparently these are
non-issues.

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.


My limited experience with that technique has been unsuccessful to
date, but with your reported success, I'll continue to excitement.

When working on pollinating flowers I always wear a flip-up headband-type
jeweler's magnifying glasses.


Excellent suggestion. Headband magnifiers have got to be orders of
magnitude superior to fiddling with a loupe. Have you got a favorite
brand?

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...


Yes. That raises another question. I often find a very small amount
of viscus yellow gel associated with the firm, well defined pollenia
on the end of their filaments. I'm not sure of the origin of this
yellow gel, but it looks like it may contain pollen cells. Would you
include that in your definition of "original pollen?"

a selfing is my absolute last resort
only undertaken when I can not find a sib pollen to use in a cross.


I understand your reasoning here.

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.


That is a good point. I will be more careful in insuring through
pollen removal in the future. It wouldn't do to wait several years to
bloom-out a cross only to find that it wasn't what was expected. Do
you find that such inadvertent selfings result in seed of mixed
parentage, i.e. "polycrossing?"

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

--------------------------------


Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience, Mick. Your help
is truly appreciated.


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
news

Pollinating Reed-Stem Epidendrums (Small Flowers).

CLIP