For any of you who are interested in, or who are able to send me seed pods for my Mycorrhizae project:

We have found, within the past years, that Paphiopedilum seeds have a far greater chance of germinating when the seeds are sown 'green pod'. This is accomplished at any time before the seed capsule splits open naturally.

In years past, paph seed germination was very difficult to achieve, and I believe it was the result of storing the dry seeds for too long before they were sown. When sowing the seeds by green pod, the results are excellent.

I have learned that some fungi spores are rather short-lived. If the Mycorrhizae spores are contained within the paph seeds, this could relate to why seed germination was so poor in the past.

When I was active in flasking my own orchids, I learned that seed pods for most paph species would contain sufficiently developed seeds at about 4 months after fertilization. More seeds were seen after 5 and 6 months.

Since different species have different development times for natural seed pod opening, it is hard to give a positive answer for when to cut off the seed pod.

Ideally, a seed pod should be watched for that tell-tale change, from green to brownish color, which denotes that it is preparing for seed release. I would ask you to watch for this sign, but I do not expect that everyone will be able to judge this difference, therefore, for my project, I ask for seed pods to be cut and sent to me at the 5 month date.

Incidentally.......for those who have not read my book, it is possible to re-use the pollinia when scraped from the stigmatic surface of a once-used flower. (Not all the pollinia germinate at once).

Thanks for your support.

Lance

I have read that you will get a much better level of seed production if you gently mash up the pollinia (i.e. with a toothpick ) before applying it to the stigmatic surface. More surface contact = more seed production - makes sense to me!