Tina, I also grow everything I'm using for hybridizing in pots, and Lyle hooked me up with a place where I could get 2-gal. pots and that's what I use for the larger ones. Since I now have a few hundred in pots, I can't keep them all in 2-gal pots for space reasons, so the smaller ones are in 1-gal's. And I also purchased some 3-gal pots from the same place to handle the really big ones I get. So far my record of pod setting with them, and even scapes, is not stellar -- but this year I'm trying to push them a bit so I can get some crosses made before it gets really hot. I think our dry heat here has a lot to do with my fairly poor results at pod setting, but I keep struggling on. And guess what -- this morning I made my first cross of the year! I put SPACECOAST TINY PERFECTION pollen (frozen) on SPRING FORMAL, and I'm anticipating that it will not take -- but who knows! Just maybe it will... but it still gets into the low 50's here at night, so I don't have high hopes.
I really don't know about these things, but I suspect that if you play with the roots it might keep at least some of them from blooming this year. Hopefully someone in the know will jump in here with some advice...
