It looks like my Alocasia Odora Variegata is at the begining stages of inflorescence development. Can anybody help me understand how can i ensure pollination so i gan get seeds that i can try to gereminate . I've been surprised by the Odora, its much sturdier than the Mac and seems to be a faster grower, it also has two pups developing. If they both make it I have one ear-markerd for you Brian.
Here's the whole plant.
that is a beautiful plant! you have a great green thumb! Key West is awesome. It would be so nice to grow your orchids outside attached to the trees down there. I am jealous! It was in the 20s this morning here in Louisville KY. brrrrrrr. good job!
Thats exactly where i have my orchids, attached to a giant mango tree. I do nothing with them, after i attach them and they bloom away. I have to admit i did buy this one as a mature plant but I've managed to keep it healthy so far. Im just developing my thumb so it getting a better shade of green.
What a gorgeous plant! Best of luck with the seed germination!
ROX
Thanks Rox, do you know how I go about pollinating it
You would need to get the pollen down into the lower level. In most cases they do not often self pollinate. Meaning that when the pollen is dropped the female section has already gone sterile. It is not the case in all alocasias some specially when they are older plants can self pollinate. The trick is to get the pollen into the lower swollen chamber onto the receptacles. The top portion of the flower were it is hooded will tighten up about midway when it does this it will then release its pollen. What you need to do is collect the pollen and cut a window into the lower section and place the pollen their. I would also suggest saving the pollen in a test tube or some aluminum foil and placing it in your refrigerator. The pollen should stay viable for sometime hopefully for the next flower once it is at the stage you have pictured here take your test tube pollen and put it on the female section long before it produces pollen.
Here is a photo of a colocasia being pollinated. The top spadix was removed so that it did not self pollinate.
Thanks Brian
I'll wait and see how it develops, im sure ill be looking for some more help throughout the process, if you don't mind.
Q. How do i know if the female part on the closed bottom is already sterile by the time the male top part is releasing its pollen? Can you buy pollen for plants?
We should set up a "stud" farm.
For example. I have lots of C. Fontanesii pollen right now I could ship if someone wanted it.
ROX
PS Celt. Please post a photo of the odora variegata in the variegated EE thread.
Thanks, ROX
Well a stud farm would be very interesting pollen in a refrigerator can last around 1 to 2 months in a freezer it can last longer but no one has really done exact studies on it. The problems you might have with such a thing are their really is not a lot of people interested in breeding, this is a good and bad thing I think. For one it makes people like me more important if everyone was doing it I would not be main source for new plants. The bad thing is not as many new plants are being produce as could be. Truthfully I can bairly keep up with what I breed.
I don't at all mind sending people pollen or helping out with breeding questions. The only trouble I have is when it takes me so long to get pollen stored and then shipped then the person never uses it. I know very few people who have produced new plants but the few who have I enjoy helping out alot.
I have always thought collecting plants animals or anything happens in steps you start out with a few then move on to the rare and then the holy grails. Once you get everything that usually is the end for most collectors they reach what seems like the end. With plants you can move on to a very exciting and new step and that is producing new hybrids which seems to me to be one of the most exciting aspects of collecting.
I personally have pollen of the following right now
Alo Borneo Giant
Alo Mac X Longloba
Tons of colocasia pollen saved up.
Well i for one am happy that you are continuing with the breeding of new plants that generations to come will enjoy, its quite a legacy Brian.
Sorry to be asking again but if the female goes dormant before the male puts out pollen will it be still receptive if i open a little window once the male is doing its thing. Or is there a brief overlap period when the two are active together. When you open the window can you tell if there still receptive.I cant find any info on Polinating an aroid with itself just for hibridizing.
Thanks
Their is a small time when the pollen first starts to drop that most but not all Alocasias seem to still be receptive for pollen. As soon as you get pollen you should cut a window and place some of the pollen below onto the female section. I would suggest taking the rest of the pollen and storeing it for later use. Most alocasias produce multiple flowers. I would suggest putting tags with each cross as well as a baggy to keep water from washing away pollen. If you interesed I could send you Borneo giant pollen for the next flower. A odor crossed with borneo would be very nice specially if its variegated.
Cool
Hold onto it for now and ill see how i get on with this i dont want to waste it on you unless i know i can take care of the process. How long form this stage of flower too the polen part.
With most aroids and other plants it is usually only receptive for one good day. If you notice as soon as the spath started to open were you could see the spadix you may have noticed a bit of a smell coming from the flower. This is the best time to add pollen to the flower. usually in the next day or two the flower will restrict about midway then the pollen will start to drop. After this if the inflorecense was not pollinated the flower will droop and fall off if it did take the berries will begin to swell up and in a few months time turn orange to red in color after this it will carry a few seeds. I will help you as it happens. THANKS
Well its been a couple of days and the spath still looks the same. It seems to have stopped growing. Although another leaf has sprouted right beside it today. Ill keep a close eye on , I have all my tools ready. This is interesting and exciting thaks for the help.
Here we go,
It started to open today and it is open all the way through to the females at the bottom, if i'm following along correctly the females are receptive now while they are accessable and soon the hood should constrict around the middle cutting them off, then the males on top should produce the pollen . Thats when the surgery will begin. For now the top has the texture of cauliflower.
Your correct on that. You may get a smell usually of bananas or rotting fruit right about this stage. This is a perfect time to get pollen to the females. After that pollen will drop from the top right when it does you may have a small chance to selfpollinate it. I would store part of the pollen for later flowers. I wish I had gotten you that borneo pollen right now you could just brush the female section and they would take.
How exciting. Good luck, do you have any pollen?
Brian
Is there any way to increase flower growth, what about bloom feeder that i have used on my flowering trees? I read a thread somewhere about using birth control pills to increase pup development on Musas, you ever tried it on EEs?
Linda, I've no pollen for this one , but im going to try to self pollinate it.
I have heard similar things but have not yet tried it with the birth control pills. Being a guy they are hard to find and I think the risk of taking them from my girlfriend would be to high LOL.
You may want to look up Gilberic acid it will make just about any plant flower. Usually take 140 days after spraying.
With what you paying to keep your plant babies warm during the winter i'm sure that's the last thing you need. LOL.
Seems like Gilberic Acid is common when growing 'weed' but not finding any other references. But 140 days seems a long time. Maybe it's in a flowering mood and will put out some more, my others seem to put out a successsion of flowers and then stop, but i had no clue about pollinating them then, Ill no better next time.
This morning we have a sweet vanilla bananna smell, and you dont even have to get right into it to notice it. Brian what usually does the pollination on Odoras is it ants, moths beetles or somwthing else. Is it geared to a specific insect or not fussy.
As Brian said 'almost' no Alocasia self pollinate.
odora is one that can.
My larger odora always self pollinates.
I usually get one of two pods of seed a year.
I have one ripening now.
You can really help it out by tapping the bloom lightly w/ a stick causing pollen to drop into that opening.
Or just take a small brush, like in Brian's photo, and painting the pollen on.
Good luck!
The harder part then is getting them to grow to the true leaf size.
The little seedlings have a high mortality rate unless you've a professional setup like Brians.
But it CAN be done.
Ric
That's good news but still no pollen yet , and ive been checking, not that i'm obsessed or anything .LOL
Still cauliflower on top. I have my tools ready to cut a window but maybe now i wont need to do surgery.
But I cant believe how fragrant it is, must be the Humididyit at 80% Temp 79F and the bloom smells like sweet Benadryl
This is interesting...keep us updated!
ROX
I agree rox. Not sure what sweet benadryl smells like, but I can imagine sweet vanilla-banana..lol Beautiful plant, too. Keep us posted, Celt. (had a giggle bout the BC pills,too)
Herse's the latest installment
Still very fragrant when i came home and the hood is definately cinched at the center. Although there was no visable production of pollen the inside of the hood was covered in a very fine powder.
I cut a hole in the base of the hood to reveal what looked like stumpy tendrills, as soon as i removed the piece a little fruit fly climbed out, so maybe he has done the job already.
Then taking a small brush i wiped the inside of the hood, if you look closely you can see the inside bottom still has some pollen on it.
I ran the brush over the tendrills that i could reach. its really hard to know if it worked as the powder mixed with moisture that had gathered in the hood. So there was no pollen to actually see or save.
So i covered the hole with cling wrap and ill see if there's any more produced later to repeat and maybe save some.
cinched with a window.
Shame you don't have two flowers going.
It would be interesting to leave one alone and see if the fruit fly did do it.
Never thought of them.
I compost my bananas w/ banana peels and there are tons of fruit flies around them.
Which just happens to be right next to my odora........
Ric
celt in your second pic above if you look you can see the pollen has fallen and is at the bottom of the flower. It is probably full right above the area were it constricted. I can see pollen in the photo right at the bottom of the spadix male area.
Thanks Brian
I noticed that in the photo too, so i went back to get it but it fell through to the bottom so i made the hole bigger and spread it around a bit more. When i opened the hole to the bottom part i noticed wet pollen down there too but not a lot of it , so i guess the females got a good sprinkling between me the fly and good old gravity.
So now what.
I notice in other pictures that the hood and male part are removed. Will this happen natrually anyway or should i do it. I assume if the females were receptive they will continue to grow if not they'll rot and fall off.
Is there any point in me removing more of the the sheath around the females to get at the other side or is that needed to protect the females.
im not quite sure the pollen produced was what i was expecting, im used to the orange stuff on cut stem lilies that gets everywhere. Anyway i ran a brush all over it and wiped it on the inside of a glass tube. Now i think i have some smears of pollen on the glass, is that what you expect when you gather pollen or should there be dry powder.
Thanks for all the help lads, this is a new adventure in gardening for me, and a lot of fun.
Neil
After repeated trips to the male with a brush and tapping invisible pollen into the test tube i finally have what amounts to about a dozen grains of salt. The smears on the side of the tube dried up and produced quite a bit too. So i guess im ready for the next bloom.
I finally got back to the garden today and checked the flower only to find it rotted to the stalk, so I guess it didn't take. At least i now have the polen ready for the next one.
