Pictures of various pollen stages on densiflorea x robcantleyi spike

[JoeG]

Being new to having a nep male spike, I thought I would look at what the flowers looked like at different times. I looked around the site and saw some others already posted but these pictures are of sequential days. I was looking to see approximately what day the pollen looked/was ripe. I still don’t know. I’m hope you all can let me know. I feel like I’m over analyzing this. But It’s fun and let’s me use my camera.

Pictures 1 and 2 are on the second day the flower was open. I didn’t think about doing this until then. I didn’t figure out what the pearl like spots were until the next day.
Pictures 3 and 4 are the third day. The flowers are expanding and the pearly stuff appears to be nectar.
Pictures 5,6 and 7 are the fourth day. More expansion and fluffy. Also the stem has turned red. Is this a sign it’s ripe or just incidental?
At the least I learned about the structure of nep male flowers.

 

[JoeG]

Apparently I can’t count . Pictures 7, 8 and 9 are the 5 day. The picture 9 shows a new flower opening and the original flower.

 

[hcarlton]

The second the anthers open and release pollen (ie. the third image), the pollen is ripe. And beyond that point you risk losing some as it just falls off the flower. With a lot of flowers that's usually not much to worry over, or healthy flowers that are producing a lot of pollen.

 

[JoeG]

Thanks for the info. I will harvest them the third day.

 

[hcarlton]

Harvest when pollen is released. Not all the flowers will open at the same time nor will they necessarily ripen at the same rate.

 

[JoeG]

the rate that they are opening has increased for sure. It went from one to about 6 flowers open. Looks like it won’t take long before it’s done.

 

[Est]

Quality content. It's always nice to have a time series that people can reference.