Flasks from Hengduan Mountain Biotech.

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Well, I don't really know how to approach this but I'll try my best. As most of us know Hengduan Mountain Biotechnology is the first company to be able to legally import flask and plants of paphs. that up to this point have not been legal in the U.S. Possible I'm not seeing the whole picture but to me it appears that us orchid growers aren't taking this seriously enough. Even though I'm a poor, and I mean poor grower of paphs. from flask, I feel an obligation to attempt to grow some of these guys up in order to get them established in the U.S. My thoughts are, what if tomorrow, for whatever reason they are no longer able to legally sell them here. Shouldn't more of us be jumping on the band wagon, and trying our best to grow these things? Well, I for one, am going to give it the old college try (even though, that was many, many moons ago). Today I received my 3 flasks that where sent from the Santa Barbara Show in Calif. The first flask I'd like to show you is the paph. micranthum. I know we can get these here but these were for me and no one else. These seem to be very tall, yet have no roots growing from the sides. Some of these have 3 or 4 sets of leaves on them. The flask has less plants that one would think due to the large size of these guys. I'm guessing 15 or possible a couple more in there.

Next is a photo of the Paph. barbigerum var. coccineium. Some of these have leaf spans of 3 to 4 inches. This flask seems to have 20 or so plants. Some of these plants have two sets of leaves but are not tall at all.

Last but not least is the flask of hangianum. These are in a different type plastic container that is much, much thicker in substance. The only way to get a photo is threw the side of the flask. Upon first evaluation, this seems to be the flask with the largest number of seedling in it. Most of these plants also seem to have two sets of leaves on them. They are almost crowding each other out. I did however buy the more expensive flask that was due to be deflasked upon arrival. Any suggestions on how to cut this flask so I can get them out in one disc? I tried a razor and it wouldn't budge.

I didn't order these until about a week and a half ago as there site was down for some time. So, naturally, I was lucky and they had everything that I wanted already on it's way here. I had them open the flasks and place cotton in them so they wouldn't get ruined in transit.

From the paperwork that I saw they only brought in 10 paph flasks and 21 cypripedium flasks. I also see very few of the newer paph. species brought in. There was lots of cypripedium hybrids brought in (300). So tell me why aren't we trying to establish these paphs.

 

[Rick]

Way to go Bob!

They look great.

I brought a few flasks (godefroyae and thaianum) in from Thailand via Brett in Australia (s1214215). He did his best, but unfortunately they were roughed up pretty bad in transit, and I lost about 60% right off the top. The balance are looking pretty good now.

So you have a good headstart with these. I think you'll find the barbigerum very easy to deal with.

 

[eggshells]

Good looking flask. Good luck with that. I am trying my luck on tranlienianum and delenatii and I will have to update my post soon.

 

[Rick]

Possible I'm not seeing the whole picture but to me it appears that us orchid growers aren't taking this seriously enough. Even though I'm a poor, and I mean poor grower of paphs. from flask, I feel an obligation to attempt to grow some of these guys up in order to get them established in the U.S. My thoughts are, what if tomorrow, for whatever reason they are no longer able to legally sell them here. Shouldn't more of us be jumping on the band wagon, and trying our best to grow these things? Well, I for one, am going to give it the old college try (even though, that was many, many moons ago.

So tell me why aren't we trying to establish these paphs.

Well I've been working on perfecting my seedling growing techniques for the last 7 years so that I wouldn't be throwing them on the composte heap when these species finally became available.

I hope you keep all the K-lite infor in mind.

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Rick, when I ordered these I insisted that the flasks be opened and cotton be stuffed in the top to avoid damage when they shipped them from Calif.. When the shipped them in from China they don't get damaged as they have so many flasks and plants together in a heavy box. I know Bret couldn't do that for you. I may just be tossing my money away, but I'm going to try and wish more of our members would also.

 

[eggshells]

Maybe try a hacksaw on cutting the plastic on top as wide as you can without damaging the seedlings.

 

[cnycharles]

if you can find someone with a large tubing or pvc pipe cutter, you could take the top off of it, or poke a hole and use tin snips or start from the top and use tin snips (or similar)

 

[Clark]

Dremel.

 

[NYEric]

Some of us already have those species.

 

[tenman]

Must be nice. Their website was down for so long I assumed they were defunct. I guess you just have to be lucky enough to hit it on the right day. I've never been lucky.

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Tenman, It has more to do with perseverance than luck. I checked the site every day, when I couldn't access it, I contacted Santa Barbara Estate. They in turn forwarded the e-mail to someone in town whom the Holgers knew. Then once the site came up I also contacted them threw their site. I used every angle that I could think of. I was surprised that they only brought in 10 paph. flasks. I would have thought 30 flasks for the three day event. Although, they must know what they can and can't sell. After all they can't be bringing home what they don' t sell.

Eric, that is true that many of us do have some of these species, BUT they are illegal.

 

[Roth]

Way to go Bob!

I brought a few flasks (godefroyae and thaianum) in from Thailand via Brett in Australia (s1214215). He did his best, but unfortunately they were roughed up pretty bad in transit, and I lost about 60% right off the top. The balance are looking pretty good now.

So you have a good headstart with these. I think you'll find the barbigerum very easy to deal with.

The Thais LOVE to use those stupid whisky bottle, and a very brittle gelrite/agar on top of that. In a round flask like the ones from Holger, the agar plate is 'sucked' at the bottom, and usually will not move. It is true for Orchid Inn flasks too. In the whisky bottle, the agar plate is very loose at the bottom of a kind of curved bottom, so it jumbles very easily.

Must be nice. Their website was down for so long I assumed they were defunct. I guess you just have to be lucky enough to hit it on the right day. I've never been lucky.

We have the problem with many Chinese website, they have a lot of banned words, keywords, requests, IPs, so sometimes you cannot access many Chinese websites, suddenly you can access all at once...

 

[NYEric]

Eric, that is true that many of us do have some of these species, BUT they are illegal.

I guess you're correct. Remember me when you sell/trade off some of those plants!

 

[kentuckiense]

Dr. Perner is a very good guy and I'm glad to see his Cyp and Paph propagation efforts are finally coming to fruition.

About four years ago I was working on a manuscript for a Cyp pollination study. I contacted him via email and he responded very quickly and attached a pdf of some of his work. Good guy!

 

[Mike]

Bob, I dumped a boatload at the paph forum in DC last month to do exactly what you are trying to do. I bought several flasks and plants to grow them up and to propogate. For the commonly available species in the US, importing new plants introduces some genetic diversity that should help in the long run. I haven't yet cut into the narrow-necked flasks yet, but my plan would be to use a hacksaw and make careful, shallow cuts into the flask just below the transition point where the neck starts to narrow. I have deflasked 4 that were in the larger thin-walled containers and can say that they were fairly easy to deflask and separate for planting into compots.

I will second kentuckiense's remark about Dr. Perner. He is very giving of his knowledge and I like that his propagation efforts are seeing success.

 

[Justin]

might want to try the agar-on method with the hangs once you get them out, to avoid further bruising. I've only tried it once (with hayndaldianum flask from orchid inn) and the plants didn't skip a beat.

Going to try the same with my stonei replates when i get them to see if they grow faster right out of flask--(stonei has sulked out of flask for me in the past).

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Justin, that was my intentions. The 1st two flask that I got from them are already in the greenhouse with the agar on. It's been a couple of weeks already and they seem to be doing fine. At the moment the vents don't open much if at all so the humidity stays up.

 

[W. Beetus]

Very nice looking seedlings!

 

[fundulopanchax]

I had ordered several flasks in advance and picked up the leftovers at the DC Paph forum. They had lots of interesting adult Paph's as well. They had them bareroot in bud. Holger and Winqing are great folks. Good luck to everyone with these.

Ron

 

[NYEric]

I feel bad I missed out!