This is a first bloom seedling of Phalaenopsis (Su An Cricket x stobartiana) bred by Al. I couldn't be more tickled with it. Its miniature (well, it might get bigger as it matures, but probably not a lot), has cute-as-a-button rust colored flowers that are very shiny and somewhat fragrant. I'm very interested in breeding of the miniature species like stobartiana, and Al has had a fair amount of success with his crosses. I always enjoy browsing his young seedlings.The mechanics of making crosses with miniatures have some tricks to them. For example, miniature phal species have much smaller pollen nodules than other phals, and its said that these do not have sufficient hormone to induce the necessary length in the pollen tubes. It could also be that there just not enough pollen grains to make the zillions of seed you get in one of those thumb sized phal pods. Its said that you can get around this by using the mini as the pod parent, but I'm always hesitant to do that--to paranoid to risk my minis!
A couple years ago I made a cross of P. Emily Grimball x honghenensis. Emily Grimball is a mid-sized thing with solid pink, waxy star flowers. It made a big giant pod but only a couple hundred seed. However, I figure that is enough seed for me to deal with as I do my own flasking and only have so much space. I have the first of them in compot now. I can't wait to see them bloom!
2 comments:
"I do my own flasking..."
Really?! I am impressed. I don't aspire to do that, but I'd love to hear more about how you did it! I will eventually make some crosses, plan to send them out to Troy Meyers for the dirty work.
Cool Phal cross, I like it!
Yes indeed I do.
At work I have access to an autoclave and sterile hood. I'm not sure could function without them, although I've seen several folks talk about making a "sterile cabinet" out of a cardboard box.
I use commercial media from Phytotech Labs, with only minor tweaking. Containers are mason jars with a hole poked in the lid and covered by a little round band-aid for safe air flow.
The majority of the process is a waiting game. If you've bought through Troy's system you already have some sense of that.
Troy's group does good work.
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