PONDER THIS

[sabredance2]

Have you ever considered how a hybrid generation could be skipped, and in the process saving 3-4 years ? To illustrate, say, go from F3 to F5 in as little as 2 years. Fancifil ? I'll leave it up to the brilliant minds to identify how.

[jjurlina]

Hmm have heard of this being achieved with hellebores but never orchids, however I see that some of Andy's new generation hybrids that flower as a young plant may achieve this goal.

[sabredance2]

Clue no. 1.

[jjurlina]

I now see the 'game' that you are playing, I assume that your photo is showing flowering occurring in a seedling flask? My experience with flasking is almost no existent but none o of the flasks that I have seen show flowering.

[Hondurensis]

Assuming that the pollen is viable, this seems a very plausible avenue of "skipping" a generation.

[sabredance2]

Hondurensis - well this is merely step 1. What about hybridising within the flask?

[cricketerry]

Looking at the first photo of a flower growing in vitro I was thinking along the lines of collecting pollen and then starting a cross. The second pic however shows that the flower was pollinated in the flask as the seed pod is maturing. Can you just let it mature, split and drop its seeds onto the agar to grow on? My main concern here would be the amount of nutrients left in the agar.

[sabredance2]

Terry once the pod had completed say 6 months, you would then sow the seed on fresh agar. But the major issue is how on such a tiny immature plant, was spike initiation created ... and not just one, but multiple spikes?

[MrCym]

But I can also see the risks in this procedure....

[Murph]

What an incredible happening and picture!

The flower in pic one most people would be happy to skip a generation.
But throwing up those spikes while still in the flask is quite intriguing.
Did the heater fail for a night or two, and get repaired?.