# Should I keep it...?



## xiphius (May 18, 2018)

So, the first flower on my Phrag andreettae dropped about 2 weeks ago. Normally, I wait for the ovary to shrivel and loosen up on its own, then knock it off to keep the spikes clean. However, this time it appears to be swelling, so I think my andreettae may have self pollinated somehow? I am not at all experienced with Phrag pods, what do you guys think? I know some slippers self-pollinate pretty readily, not sure about andreettae though.

(the lowest one down, the second one up is from the second flower, which just recently dropped and is how the ovary for the first flower looked a couple weeks ago)







Closer view...






What do you all think? Should I keep it? I am a little hesitant since this is the first flowering. The plant has one flowering growth and one small new growth. The plant looks pretty healthy otherwise. As excited as I may be about the prospect of this pod, I am uncertain on the wisdom of letting such a young phrag take a pod to term, and don't want to unnecessarily endanger the plant.






In the event I do keep it, anybody have any idea what the development time for andreettae is? I was actually talking to a friend recently about possibly trying to get a pod off it in the future (but I was thinking about the next time it flowers).


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## NYEric (May 18, 2018)

Can't you process green seed?


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## xiphius (May 18, 2018)

NYEric said:


> Can't you process green seed?



Yeah... but don't you still have to let it develop for (probably) months for any of the seed to really be viable? I wasn't suggesting I let the pod split open. I was wondering if it was wise to let it develop to the point that I would harvest it for green-pod flasking? (and also what the time period would be for harvesting a green pod from andreettae)


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## TrueNorth (May 18, 2018)

It's 70 -90 days. Just watch it closely for cracks when it gets close to the target date. I got two seed pods from mine on it's first flowering last year and it's fine.


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## tomkalina (May 18, 2018)

According to Eliseo in his WOC presentation " Revisiting the Phrag. schlimii Complex", Phrag. andreettae is frequently autogamous.


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## xiphius (May 18, 2018)

TrueNorth said:


> It's 70 -90 days. Just watch it closely for cracks when it gets close to the target date. I got two seed pods from mine on it's first flowering last year and it's fine.



Thanks! Guess I'll let it develop then. That's way faster than I thought it would be. Looks like I should probably order some media soon then . I've been wanting to get into flasking for a couple years now. Should be fun.



tomkalina said:


> According to Eliseo in his WOC presentation " Revisiting the Phrag. schlimii Complex", Phrag. andreettae is frequently autogamous.



Thanks Tom! Good to know. Yeah, the only real option is that it self pollinated since it is my only phrag in bloom at the moment. Either that or some other phrag pollen magically appeared in my basement .


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## xiphius (May 23, 2018)

Just placed an order for some half strength P668 media packets! Super excited! =D


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## eteson (May 24, 2018)

Yes as said by Tom it is very frequent to see self pollination with this species we have to cut the seedpods frequently to avoid unneccesary stress in our andreettae and fischeri plants. Your pod should be ready in about 90 days.

We are using P668 at 1/2 of strenght with 100ml/of coconut water for germination and for replates P668 at 1/2 strenght + 50 gr/of banana.
We replate them a couple of times before deflasking
They grow fast!


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## naoki (May 24, 2018)

Eliseo, thank you for the info! Is it 100ml of coconut water per 1 liter of media and 50g of fresh (or is it dried) banana per 1 liter of media?


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## xiphius (May 24, 2018)

eteson said:


> Yes as said by Tom it is very frequent to see self pollination with this species we have to cut the seedpods frequently to avoid unneccesary stress in our andreettae and fischeri plants. Your pod should be ready in about 90 days.
> 
> We are using P668 at 1/2 of strenght with 100ml/of coconut water for germination and for replates P668 at 1/2 strenght + 50 gr/of banana.
> We replate them a couple of times before deflasking
> They grow fast!



Thanks for the info! Yeah, I was planning on doing P668 at 1/2 strength with 15% coconut water (as per the base recommendations from phytotech for phrags - here). Since this will be my first foray into flasking, I didn't want to stray too far "off book" until I get comfortable with things and am ready to start experimenting. Based on your recommendation, I'll go ahead and lower the coconut water to 10% in the mother flask.

Good to know about the banana!


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## xiphius (May 24, 2018)

eteson said:


> Yes as said by Tom it is very frequent to see self pollination with this species we have to cut the seedpods frequently to avoid unneccesary stress in our andreettae and fischeri plants. Your pod should be ready in about 90 days.
> 
> We are using P668 at 1/2 of strenght with 100ml/of coconut water for germination and for replates P668 at 1/2 strenght + 50 gr/of banana.
> We replate them a couple of times before deflasking
> They grow fast!



Thanks for the info! Yeah, I was planning on doing P668 at 1/2 strength with 15% coconut water (as per the base recommendations from phytotech for phrags - here). Since this will be my first foray into flasking, I didn't want to stray too far "off book" until I get comfortable with things and am ready to start experimenting. Based on your recommendation, I'll go ahead and lower the coconut water to 10% in the mother flask.

Good to know about the banana!


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## eteson (May 24, 2018)

naoki said:


> Eliseo, thank you for the info! Is it 100ml of coconut water per 1 liter of media and 50g of fresh (or is it dried) banana per 1 liter of media?



Hi Naoki
My formula is to add 100ml of coconut to 1l of media so you will end with 1100ml of sowing media.For the replate media we add 50g of fresh banana, not too ripe. Try to be always in the lower side for the agar concentration, this is on of the key points for Phrags, my media s almost liquid, just hard enough to keep the seedlings vertical.
Hope it helps!



xiphius said:


> Thanks for the info! Yeah, I was planning on doing P668 at 1/2 strength with 15% coconut water (as per the base recommendations from phytotech for phrags - here). Since this will be my first foray into flasking, I didn't want to stray too far "off book" until I get comfortable with things and am ready to start experimenting. Based on your recommendation, I'll go ahead and lower the coconut water to 10% in the mother flask.
> Good to know about the banana!



Good luck! It is very nice to see this species being propagated. Now it is very hard to find it in the wild. 1000s of plants have been illegally collected from the natural habitat here in Colombia during the last few years.


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