I am new to Phrags and today was trying for the first time to pollinate - I have done lots of Cyps and Phals which are easy since in the Cyps the pollen is a viscous very sticky liquid and in the Phals the stigma is very sticky so the pollen cant be gotten off even if one tries. However, my experience today was that neither the pollen nor the stigma was sticky so I had to rub the pollen on (I checked several plants). Can someone experienced give me some advice - or tell me that one or the other should have been sticky?

Thanks!

Ron Burch

How long have the flowers you tried been open. I don't do much crossing myself, but I've heard you want to pollinate a Phrag. flower practically the day it opens. This advice came from someone I trust to know far more than I do, so hopefully it helps. If it's a bunch of fooey, don't blame me, I haven't tried it.
Jon

Thanks for the advice! The flowers I have tried have been three to four days old for the most part but I also then examined some that were several weeks old and they had the same characteristics. I have several that will open in the next few days so I will check them on the day of opening.

Ron Burch

Ron
I also had allot of troubles adjusting to phrags after paphs. But I found if I mist the staminode lightly (with water) it makes things a bit stickier. I also found that if the air humidity is high, flower age is not an issue.

I couldn't get anything to take when it was below 50% to 60%. Tried all kinds of games with flower age with no results. But when I boosted air humidity (>70%) pollination sucess was better than 70% on flowers of different ages.

Caudatum type pollen does seem stickier than the others. My wallisii was a piece of cake compared to percei.

Thanks Rick for the help. I suspect that when I was working the humidity was in the 50 % range as it was in the afternoon. I will mist and work in the morning when humidity is generally 70 %.

Ron Burch

Okay, I'm sorry. Can someone explain (or find the previously posted thread where they already did) WHERE you put the pollinia?

I'm going to try my wallisii - the only pics I have are paphs. Same for Phrags?
Off to mist my staminoid....

Heather
The stigma is like a mushroom (??) shaped organ at the lower end of the collumn, with the smooth part facing the back wall of the pouch.

You either need to remove the pouch or cut a window out of the pouch behind the ventral sepal. (The latter is what I do with a sharp fresh razor blade). Looking through that window you should be looking at the stigmatic surface where you apply the pollen.

If things are very dry and you can't get anything to stick try misting with a little water.

Heather
The stigma is like a mushroom (??) shaped organ at the lower end of the collumn, with the smooth part facing the back wall of the pouch.

You either need to remove the pouch or cut a window out of the pouch behind the ventral sepal. (The latter is what I do with a sharp fresh razor blade). Looking through that window you should be looking at the stigmatic surface where you apply the pollen.

If things are very dry and you can't get anything to stick try misting with a little water.

Uh oh... I think I messed up. :embarass:
I was looking at the paph. pics in Lance's book - it looked as though the pollinia went on the FRONT surface of the staminoid. Are you saying it should be somewhere on the back?

Need anatomy 101, it seems. Damn, should have waited but thought it made sense....I removed the pouch for ease...but pollinated the wrong part! D'oh!

Yeah
You got to imagine that if you were a bug crawling out of the pouch allong the back wall what your head would bump into as you headed for the little holes where the pollinia stick out.

Assuming front and back mean the same for both of us.

The back to me is the part of the pouch adjacent to the ventral sepal.

The window method I use is kinda cumbersome, because you need to hold the sepal up and out of the way while you poke the pollen in the window.

But I think its less traumatic to the flower, leaves more material for nutrient reabsorption (maybe just science fiction), and leaves the flower better looking for a few more days of enjoyment.

I pollinated my argus, and the flower lasted for almost 3 weeks more, so I was glad I didn't totally depouch it.

For an outstanding visual anatomy lesson, Troy Meyers has a step by step photo lesson for pollenating slipper orchids - he does a Paph but Phrags and Cyps look identical. Since his pages are self-assembling when you enter a portal you have to go to www.troymeyers.com and enter. When inside, you will find a button that takes you to various illustrated lessons - go to the pollenation lessons and pick the slipper orchid. He lives far away from modern technology so his server is sometimes too slow to connect during peak hours - if you get a failure from your web browser, just try again later.

By the way, I finally was successful with pollenating Phrags when I removed the pollinia, put them on a foil square and put a few drops of distilled water on them. After a couple of minutes, they become quite gooey and sticky. While waiting, I also placed a couple of drops of water on the column. Thanks to those who told me to get everything wet before trying to pollenate.

Ron Burch

I agree completely - the information given to add moisture worked like a gem!
Thanks Rick, and Ron, I'll check out Troy's site on this - frankly, if it takes, it is going to him anyway, I'm pretty sure!