Ooh! Al, you sound so sexy! Do you have your wench & antennae with
you during this process? *G*
Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.
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Cheers Wendy

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Al wrote:
Yes. Put the pollen in that hole. that is called a stigmatic
opening by the way. Don't use pollen from the same flower that you
pollinate. Many Phals wither and drop a once the pollen has been
removed. I don't know how this response is triggered. Wait until
you have several flowers open and put pollen from one flower onto the
stigma of another flower. I might also suggest that you choose a
flower that has been open about a week to 10 days, rather than one
that just opened to hold the pod.
A toothpick tip can easily pick up a pollina glob if it has itself
had the tip touched into the goo inside the stigmatic opening. Some
of the stick stuff will adhere to the toothpick tip. Don't jab the
toothpick when collecting stigmatic goo. You might damage the
flower. You might collect the stigma goo from the pollen donating
flower as it is going to be sacrificed anyway.

You may notice that the two to four polinia are attached a
semi-transparent forklike appendage when it comes off the flower.
Sometimes this appendage is the devil to remove from the pollen and I
don't know if it is necessary to take it off, but I always do before
I collect the pollen on the tooth pick tip. I figure that you don't
want anything but pollen in the hole. In nature, this little
appendage has two sticky ends. One end sticks to the pollen and one
end sticks to the insect that trips the pollen release cap. Once the
pollen comes in contact with the sticky stigmatic goo the pollen is
suppose to release but sometimes it does not and you must keep poking
the toothpick into the flower, so for this reason, I remove the
appendage after I collect the pollen and before I fertilize with the
toothpick. I wish I could remember hat this appendage is called. I
hate it when I can't remember words.
You probably won't loose the plant. P amboinensis has something like
a nine month capsule ripening period. However, all plants are unique
and ymmv.
Also, pollination takes place when the pollen is put in that hole. After
24 to 36 hours you may see that the hole has swollen closed. You may then
observe that the flower begins to change, it may appear
to be wilting. After about 30 days *fertilization* takes place. This
is when the pollen tubes grow down into the ovary and fertilize the
eggs they find there. Most capsules fail in the first 30 days. The
flower and ovary wither and drop off. If this does not happen, the
flower parts on amboinensis will turn green and become thick and
leaf-like on the tip of the swelling ovary. (This only happens in
certain subsections of the Phal genus, not every species does it) At
this point you can assume you have seed, but you may have a false
pregnancy. Sometimes plants carry pods to term and have no viable
seed inside.
Sometimes plants carry pods several months but start to abort months
prior to seed ripening. Sometimes, this means there is not really
any viable seed. Sometimes you can flasks the stuff you find inside
such aborted pods and get a few actual protocorms. There may be a
tipping point for the plant where it decides not to carry a capsule
if it doesn't have sufficient viable seed. I would think with
amboinensis that anything prior to about 6 months would not be worth
flasking, especially if you can not verify if there is seed under a
microscope.

"Phalguy" wrote in message
...

Hello everyone !

I have a nice Phal. amboinensis X Phal. tetraspis starting to bloom
right now! Nice cream color with some very tender mahogany stipe.
Nice lilac like
fragrance!

This morning, while expecting this plant, I was thinking to put
myself to a
new challenge! I would like to cross this plant by itself but I
don`t know where exactly we have to put the pollen?
Just behind and down below the pollen sacs, there is a hole, which
is, I think, connected to the ovary behind the petal and sepal! Am I
right? Should
I put the pollen in that littel hole?

I know it can be risky and I could lose the plant but it`s a risk I`m
ready
to take.

Thank you

Claude

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