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#1
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treatment of fertilized orchids
Newbie orchid grower seeking help
Since i have access to tissue culture facilities and all necessary culturing medium (M&S etc), I thought I would dabble in orchid growing from seed and decided to fertilize a dendrobium. 3 days after fertilizing all the flowers, 90% of them wilted and the stigmata started swelling. It's been 2 weeks or so since I did this and was wondering whether the plant should be treated in any special way in order to produce viable seeds. any necessary changes in light cycle, fertilization? temperature etc etc? Any help would be smashing thanks! Nigel |
#3
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And once you DO have the seeds, knock that MS back to 1/2
strength, put sugar at 20 grams per liter, and have at it. They'll germinate quite readily on that. Orchids are "replated" (versus "subcultured" for normal plants), and the medium that is employed is similar to 1/2 MS + 2% sucrose, but with 20-30 grams of "other" stuff- usually an undefined component such as coconut liquid, pineapple juice, or overripe bananas. You can knock back MS to as little as 35% label strength with sucrose at 1.4%, and then coconut or pineapple at 50-100 mL/L, and then agar at 8-10 grams per liter, depending upon the type used. Or you can just buy something like O156 from PhytoTech, and use that at 70-80% label strength, with about 8.5 to 9 grams of their A111 agar per liter. The email address in the header doesn't work. Send no mail there. Cheers, -AJHicks Chandler, AZ |
#4
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Seconding one of Rob's comments, with more emphasis:
You need a _big, husky_ plant to carry multiple pods. I can't say I've never done it, but I am very cautious about setting a pod on a first-bloom seedling, and the only plant I have with more than 2 pods on it is a Cattleytonia in a 10" pot. So if you care whether the mother plant survives, knock it back to one, or at most two, pods unless it's a monster. -- Kenni Judd Juno Beach Orchids http://www.jborchids.com |
#5
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WOW! Now just where did I put that Gilbert chemistry set.
Sorry about being snide but I've been reading a lot about growing orchid from seed (can you smell the burning gray matter) and the first part of your message confused me. Most of what I read have rigid procedures, some are way out in chemistry nerd ville. Most say start your seed in Orchid seed sowing medium, and then transfer to an Orchid maintenance medium/replate medium. Beings that I stayed away from chemistry in High school I like to stay away from all that measuring and weighing. So since you mentioned PhytoTech, why not go with something like P723 ORCHID SEED SOWING MEDIUM, Mother Flasking Medium II. for starting the seed and then transfer to P748 ORCHID MAINTENANCE/ REPLATE MEDIUM. Both come in 1 liter size so the only measuring is the water. I still think that's complicated and wondered why can't they make a medium that you plant the seed and forget till it's time to deflask. Well I'm going back to looking for a really dirt cheap Flow hood building plan. |
#6
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Thank you all so much for all the info, it was more than I expected I
have to say. I have removed all pods but one since this is the second flowering year fot this particular plant (and therefore not a monster at all, Kenni). Being curious I bisected the other pods and saw thousands of seeds in the making... very nice to see but I feel somewhat murderous. This particular fertilization was not a cross, but merely self pollination. I gathered that messing around with crosses would complicate things and since I am just starting I thought I should stick to the basics and expand what I have. I noted the date of pollination and will keep a close eye on the pod to catch it before it's too late (after 4-5 months I gather for dendrobiums no?). So I have one pod left and I think that that should give me more seeds than I can handle anyhow. Thanks Aaron for the tip in the medium, I will follow those instructions. Many thanks again for all your inputs! |
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