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flasking – third set
Dec 20, 2009 Orchid Propagation Leave a comment
This was a fairly large group of flasks. I made 12 this time. I used 15 drops of peroxide (a little more than last time). There were 2 of each of the following: encyclia cochleata, dendrobium draconis, dendrobium aggregatum, dendrobium unicum, encyclia alata and encyclia parviflora. The last two were in baby food jars and the rest were in the mason jars. I got the microscope out today and looked at the seeds to see if they had embryos (that is supposed to mean they are viable seeds if they have it). Anyhow, here is a photo of one of the varieties. It looks pretty good. You can see the embryo. It is the dark green area.
orchid seeds
Little Plants
Dec 18, 2009 Orchid Propagation Leave a comment
I checked on the flasks today. I could see little plants forming. They sure are tiny. Anyhow, it looks like the encyclia oncidioides, encyclia parviflora, brassavola cucullata and the brassavola nadosa all are starting to germinate. The only bad thing is that one of the brassavola cucullata flasks has some contamination. It looks like it started around the seeds, so the seeds probably weren’t disinfected enough (I will try a little more peroxide next time).
Little Orchid Plants
yucky mold
patience
Dec 7, 2009 point of view 1 Comment
One thing I can say about growing orchids, is the need for patience. It is always a challenge to grow a plant that (usually) only blooms once a year. Most of the plants I have only bloom once for a full year of watering/fertilizing/watching.
I was recently asked how long it would take for me to grow the orchids from seed. I replied with 3 to 5 years until they flower. That IS a long time. Think about how many days that is – how many meals, how many trips to the grocery store. In today’s world of computers and technology, that is a long time. I know a lot of people who don’t even keep computers that long – imagine waiting 5 years for a plant to grow up from seed to flowering size – that is forever.
I went out to the orchid lab to check on my orchid seeds today – still nothing (or nothing big enough to see). And to think it has been 3 weeks now. At least there is no mold either. I read online (and from other sources) that the seeds can take 4 to 6 weeks to germinate so I could still have a couple weeks to go.
getting more flasks ready
Dec 5, 2009 Orchid Propagation, orchids Leave a comment
I sterilized some more flasks so that I can plant some more seeds. I prepared 8 mason jars and 4 baby food jars. I decided to try the baby food jars because it looked like it would be easier to see inside them. The small wide-mouth mason jars are a little difficult to look into because they are so short.
flasking – second set
Nov 27, 2009 Orchid Propagation Leave a comment
I made some more flasks today. I managed to make 6 more. They include 2 flasks of the following: encyclia parviflora, brassavola cucullata, brasavola nadosa. I pretty much did it the same way as my first batch. The only major difference was that I used a little less peroxide for the disinfecting (10 drops instead of 20). This made it so that I ended up with less water in the flasks.
