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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