Pollen Trading - How often does it happen amongst professional growers?

[silence882]

I have a question I've been curious about for some time... How often do pro growers trade pollen of their newest and/or best plants?

For example, when the first (legal) kovachii started to bloom in the US, did growers who had them trade or sell pollen to others? If a grower grows a very good example of a species or hybrid, how likely are they to trade/sell the pollen rather than selling divisions of the plant?

I know pollen trading happens all the time amongst hobbyists, but I am curious about the working of professional growing...

--Stephen

 

[PaphMadMan]

I'm sure there are cases where a truly rare or superior plant and its pollen are closely held, but on at least 3 occasions I have seen professional growers trade or give away pollen of orchids that had just received AOS awards at orchid shows. The conversations they had made it seem like a common practice. I've also seen them divide a newly awarded plant and swap or sell it to another grower. Of course, this was between growers who know each other well and have every reason to expect a flask of seedlings from the breeding to come back to them eventually, so it is good business too.

 

[silence882]

Thanks, Kirk. I imagine the workings of the top growers are kept pretty secret.

 

[Leo Schordje]

I've seen it happen too, and if you are getting into breeding, and have a friendly relationship with a commercial grower, they will likely be willing to give or swap pollen with you too. It is largely a matter of personal relationships. Many times professional growers are each other's better customers. I frequently see trays of orchids moving between them, they all like to balance their stock, so they co-operate.

 

[Rick]

For example, when the first (legal) kovachii started to bloom in the US, did growers who had them trade or sell pollen to others?

--Stephen

Kovachii may not be a great example. There was no importation of adult blooming kovachii to the "big" comercial growers. All the blooming plants were tied up back in Peru, and flasks of seedlings were imported by a couple of select US growers (like Orchids Limited and Glenn Decker). So at this point I doubt that Glenn and Jerry are swapping pollen back and forth on kovachii.

I'm also curious what defines "big" vs "hobbyist". These guys and gals are all open for business, and go to all the same shows and conferences that us hobbyists go to, so I don't think there's a lot of secret stuff going on, but the big growers usually access all the cool stuff before the hobbyists do (because that's what they spend their time and money on all day), so they usually don't have the need to get pollen back from their customers.

However, a few years ago I (a mere hobbyist) sent henryanum pollen back to OL at their request, to put back into a newer line of henryanum they were working on. I was pretty happy that I still had a blooming plant of something they produced years before, and glad to oblige. I just heard from Jason that those seedlings are now starting to bloom! Hopefully they will be more awesome than the parents!?! I think the big growers not only have their eyes open for breeding opportunities, but ways to keep their customers engaged in their business.

Hybrid development may be a whole different story.