Trying my hand at sowing Bletilla

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Ryan Young

Ryan Young

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This was the striata alba x soryu. I prepared flasks Friday night. And am ready to sow some seed, pod is 5 months old.

- I'm trying modified greenpod my mentor told me (hydrogen peroxide in syringe straight into the pod and suck up seeds and peroxide) and shoot into flask jar.

He normally waits for pod to split and does the peroxide in syringe + tween + seed and shakes it for 10 mins then into flask jar.

Doing some experiment with different media mixes :

1) Half strength P668

2) Half strength P668 + coconut water and potato

3) And just making a final batch of Half strength P668 + coconut water and potato + humic acid, gibberellic acid, triacontanol.

Will monitor results.

Sent from my oneplus one
0022c3974bf777e1989af95d19c5cef7.jpg
 
Cool. I'll be watching your progress. Thanks for posting this.

BTW: Can you elaborate on this please;
"He normally waits for pod to split and does the peroxide in syringe + tween + seed and shakes it for 10 mins then into flask jar."

What is "tween"?
 
John M said:
Cool. I'll be watching your progress. Thanks for posting this.

BTW: Can you elaborate on this please;
"He normally waits for pod to split and does the peroxide in syringe + tween + seed and shakes it for 10 mins then into flask jar."

What is "tween"?
Click to expand...

Hi John,

He normally does dry seed/ split pod.

Place a small amount of seed in syringe cylinder,
tip the plunger with a dab of tween (polysorbate 20) and push to close,
take assembled syringe and draw in a few cc's of hydrogen peroxide through needle tip, and the same amount of air,
shake vigorously for 10 mins, expel excess air until liquid drips out,
insert into flask (through the cotton batting stuffed elastic tubing) and expel seeds and hydrogen peroxide mix onto agar media .
 
John M said:
What is "tween"?
Click to expand...

Tween-20 is frequently used as soap (detergent, surfactant) in biology labs. I think Triton X-100 is not same, but it also has the similar functionality.

I don't think that it has any disinfecting capacity, so I'm guessing that regular dish soap might work as well for Ryan's application.
 
Tween disrupts cell membranes rather thoroughly, and it is chemically and biologically stable probably still there and active weeks to months later. I'm surprised it doesn't have some deleterious effect on germinating orchid seed, but if your application is well tested and you measure carefully I assume it must be safe for the purpose. I wouldn't recommend substituting anything else without a careful trial run with expendable seed, and even then every brand and formulation of 'dish soap' could be different, and probably harsher than Tween.

If I wanted a surfactant for this type of application I would lean toward using a true soap, salt of a fatty acid, rather than a detergent or non-ionic surfactant - and certainly the lowest level that was reliably effective.
 
Wow cool. I started sowing orchids with Bletilla striata on P6668 when I was 16 years old. The stuff was growing like weed. I mean really! The best species for a newbie, that's for sure. You can expect awesome germination results in no time.
 
Ryan Young said:
This was the striata alba x soryu. I prepared flasks Friday night. And am ready to sow some seed, pod is 5 months old.

- I'm trying modified greenpod my mentor told me (hydrogen peroxide in syringe straight into the pod and suck up seeds and peroxide) and shoot into flask jar.

He normally waits for pod to split and does the peroxide in syringe + tween + seed and shakes it for 10 mins then into flask jar.

...

Your method sounds familiar from a Phal grower and Miltonia grower on the island.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks everybody. So, the Tween is used as a wetting agent....makes sense. Is the peroxide the normal 3% that is available everywhere in pharmacies?

Another question, please. Since you're using peroxide to sterilize the seed surface (and I presume the flasks and contents are all prepped and sterilized too), why the Javex bottle in the photo?
 
Paphman910 said:
Ryan Young said:
This was the striata alba x soryu. I prepared flasks Friday night. And am ready to sow some seed, pod is 5 months old.

- I'm trying modified greenpod my mentor told me (hydrogen peroxide in syringe straight into the pod and suck up seeds and peroxide) and shoot into flask jar.

He normally waits for pod to split and does the peroxide in syringe + tween + seed and shakes it for 10 mins then into flask jar.

...

Your method sounds familiar from a Phal grower and Miltonia grower on the island.
Click to expand...
Yes Miltonia grower he's my judging advisor / mentor.
Click to expand...
 
John M said:
Thanks everybody. So, the Tween is used as a wetting agent....makes sense. Is the peroxide the normal 3% that is available everywhere in pharmacies?

Another question, please. Since you're using peroxide to sterilize the seed surface (and I presume the flasks and contents are all prepped and sterilized too), why the Javex bottle in the photo?
Click to expand...
Hi yes it's the 3% solution. I was cleaning some surfaces and experimentally spot cleaning a contaminated flask.
 
polyantha said:
Wow cool. I started sowing orchids with Bletilla striata on P6668 when I was 16 years old. The stuff was growing like weed. I mean really! The best species for a newbie, that's for sure. You can expect awesome germination results in no time.
Click to expand...
That's why I wanted to start on an easy seed pod first and get my feet wet.

I also spread a very generous amount of seed in a take out tray fill with ground coir over a layer of Orchid bark and wetter well and put the lid on, (non sterilized) and now we wait..
 
Ryan, what guage needle do you use? 'Must be pretty big, not like those very thin ones used for insulin injections. Where can I get the right sized syringe? Thanks.
 
John M said:
Ryan, what guage needle do you use? 'Must be pretty big, not like those very thin ones used for insulin injections. Where can I get the right sized syringe? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Hi John i believe it is #18 needle, I'm not sure about sourcing them, eBay may have it, my girlfriend works at a chem lab and got me one.

001085d2efaad6c58eb50bbc3988756a.jpg
 
This is very interesting. I have never considered injecting liquid into an intact pod and then aspirating seed and the liquid.
I have preferred dried seed as it gives me the flexibility of attending to flasking when I have free time as well as multiple chances should I not succeed the first time.

John, I posted a flasking method some months ago that would work in the most basic of environments. I personally prefer chlorine as the sterilizing agent as it has a dual function, sterilizing as well as bleaching at the same time.
 
Not really a problem with all genera, but some paphs seem to refuse to germinate if you don't bleach them. I assume it has something to do with seed coat/testa permeability. Added to that, bleach gives great results and is universally available.
 

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