What are Flasks?
is it what orchid seedling are transported in?
Sorry if i sound stupid!

Flasks are glass botlles where orchid seedlings are artificailly propagated
in.


Jon

"keith" wrote in message
news
What are Flasks?
is it what orchid seedling are transported in?
Sorry if i sound stupid!

Orchids are made from seeds like all plants, however unlike all plants
orchid seeds do not have stored food (endosperm) that allow the plant embryo
to live until it can grow its own roots and leaves and produce food on its
own.

In the real world orchid seeds live in realtionship to fungi that occur in
the ground. These fungi provide the orchid embryo with the nutrients it
needs until the plant can produce them on its own.

In the olden days orchids were hard to come by because out of the hundreds
of thousands of seeds that an orchid pod makes only a few would make it
through to seedling size. Even in culture, orchids had a dismal survival
rate (as compared to today.)

However today orchid seeds are raised with a great survival rate by growing
them in sterile conditions inside a glass (or other material) flask that
contains an agar base that provides the proper nutrients until the plant can
produce them on its own. Hundreds of thousands of orchid seedlings can be
raised and sold. Hence the explosion of orchids in the marketplace. I'd say
the creation of flasking was the single most influential discovery in orchid
science of any time.

K Barrett

"keith" wrote in message
news
What are Flasks?
is it what orchid seedling are transported in?
Sorry if i sound stupid!

Oops, hit send too soon...

and so flasks easily transport many many seedlings in a small space. They
are cheap (price per plant), and a way for a hobbyist to buy many seedlings,
grow them up, and sell them to fund their hobby.

K

"K Barrett" wrote in message
.net...
Orchids are made from seeds like all plants, however unlike all plants
orchid seeds do not have stored food (endosperm) that allow the plant
embryo
to live until it can grow its own roots and leaves and produce food on its
own.

In the real world orchid seeds live in realtionship to fungi that occur in
the ground. These fungi provide the orchid embryo with the nutrients it
needs until the plant can produce them on its own.

In the olden days orchids were hard to come by because out of the hundreds
of thousands of seeds that an orchid pod makes only a few would make it
through to seedling size. Even in culture, orchids had a dismal survival
rate (as compared to today.)

However today orchid seeds are raised with a great survival rate by
growing
them in sterile conditions inside a glass (or other material) flask that
contains an agar base that provides the proper nutrients until the plant
can
produce them on its own. Hundreds of thousands of orchid seedlings can be
raised and sold. Hence the explosion of orchids in the marketplace. I'd
say
the creation of flasking was the single most influential discovery in
orchid
science of any time.

K Barrett

"keith" wrote in message
news
What are Flasks?
is it what orchid seedling are transported in?
Sorry if i sound stupid!

Keith,

Flasks are glass bottles containing orchid seedlings in a sterile nutrient
enriched gelatin/agar. Some flaskers use plastic containers instead of
glass, but in general all the plastic flasks are pure crap. And all the
flasks covered with cheap plastic tupperware poptops, flimsy plastic film,
or tin foil with a rubber band are super crap. Be sure to buy only flasks
with rubber stoppers (or heavy duty mason jars with screw on tops)... else
you will be sorry after the bacteria, fungus seeps in to spoil your plants.

I would venture to say that 98% of the orchids you will see in your life
started out in flasks.

For shipping internationally I think flasks are great way to buy orchids if
you are still a young man. Orchids out of flask can take 4 years to
bloom.... of course that is not such a big concern if you have bought rare
expensive species and time is on your side... and you have graduated up from
the junk you see in Home Depot, Kmart, etc.

This is a picture of a glass flask containing some orchids. Click on the
following hyperlink:
http://personalpages.bellsouth.net/f...asks/flask.jpg

..... Snapple, Arizona Tea and Gatorade make the best stand-up flasks for my
money.

Mick
HBI, Producers of Fine Orchids in Flask
www.OrchidFlask.com

-------------------------------------

"keith" wrote in message
news
What are Flasks?
is it what orchid seedling are transported in?
Sorry if i sound stupid!