Help with new brachi seedlings

[hope]

I just ordered my first flask this week! - Hiro Luna x leucochilum. After doing some research from books and on slippertalk, I found a lot of helpful information on deflasking and growing paph seedlings, but not much specific to brachis. For those of you who have a lot of experience growing brachis from flask, are there any tips or advice you might give?

I've been trying to decide what potting mix to give them. For my mature parvis and brachis, I use a rather chunky mix of power and power plus orchiata, some classic orchiata, lava rock, charcoal, perlite, a little oyster shell, and I've also started adding a little tree fern to some, which they seem to like. I would assume that seedlings would need smaller sized bark? Maybe classic orchiata sized, but a similar mixture as above. I don't have any seedling bark.
Also, how much fertilizer would you recommend as compared with mature plants of the same type?

And yes, I realize that these are probably not the easiest seedlings to start with, but I have a good feeling about this cross, and I think it will be a fun one to see the variation (especially in the spotted pattern) between them. That is IF I can keep at least a couple alive until flowering.

 

[paphfreak]

check out some of the videos from paph paradise on u tube. some helpful ones on deflasking

 

[hope]

Thanks! I have some trouble with streaming video here, but I'll try to check them out.

 

[Justin]

Keep them under a humidity dome for the first couple weeks. Don't over-water. Snip out any browning leaves.

 

[hope]

Thanks! I was thinking of throwing a dome over them to help them gradually get acclimated. The sinningia and streptocarpus seedlings I grow seem to do better that way.

 

[Paphman910]

If you do water, use toliet paper to absorb the water that collects in the crown and leaf axil!

 

[hope]

Thank you everyone who responded!
I recieved these from Little Frog last Friday (thanks again Rob!) and potted them the same day. They look very healthy with vigorous well-developed root systems. I counted about 30 total. Since they were very crowded together I decided the smaller ones would stand a better chance if I separated them a bit into smaller groups. I ended up using my usual bark mix but with more of the smaller sized bark. I decided them into two 5 inch bulb pans which I modified by cutting out the bottom and replacing it with screen and cutting slits up the sides for increased air and drainage. Here is a picture I took a week ago right after potting them. I have them under a propagation dome to help reduce transplant shock.

I have one more question: The leaves look very different from Brachi leaves. They are thinner and don't have a pattern on them. Do paph seedlings have different leaves when they are small than when they are more mature?

 

[big923cattleya]

Yes they do! It is nothing to be concerned about.
Just watch your watering, humidity and light. These are little babies and need to be treated as such. If happy they will grow quickly and thrive.
Just like human babies, they need careful care. We can’t thrust infants into adult situations, same for orchids.

 

[Paphman910]

Those new seedlings look really healthy! I agree with big923cattleya comments.

 

[hope]

Thank you big923cattleya and Paphman910! Don't worry- these babies have been getting lots of attention. I've got them in my living room under lights (the rest of my orchids are summering outside) alongside my streptocarpus and sinningia seedlings so I can keep a close eye on them.

 

[big923cattleya]

Oh I won’t worry. I just want to keep you from worrying.
They look great and will do very well. I have known just a few people who have treated baby orchids as mature plants too quickly. But I don’t sense that from you!
Good luck with those babies!!!

 

[fibre]

I have one more question: The leaves look very different from Brachi leaves. They are thinner and don't have a pattern on them. Do paph seedlings have different leaves when they are small than when they are more mature?

Hmm, I'm sorry to say this, but either these seedlings are not out of a well nursed flask or these are not Brachys. I've done lots of Brachy flasked by myself and not one of them looks like this. They are too tiny and too the leaves are too floppy. This ist far away of good quality. Good luck with them!

 

[hope]

Thank you big923cattlya!

Hmm, I'm sorry to say this, but either these seedlings are not out of a well nursed flask or these are not Brachys. I've done lots of Brachy flasked by myself and not one of them looks like this.

Fibre, thank you for your input. What do leucochilum hybrids usually look like when they are this young?

They are too tiny and too the leaves are too floppy. This ist far away of good quality. Good luck with them!

They were actually a little bigger than I expected them to be (the largest leaf on the biggest one is 2 inches long) but I've never handled a flask of orchids before. They don't feel floppy but they are thinner (not thick and succulent) more curved and pointed on the ends than I had thought they would be, and there is no purple pigmentation on the underside. I've always been very happy with the plants I got from the Orchid Inn; hopefully the flasks didn't get mixed up or mislabled.

 

[big923cattleya]

Welcome!

 

[littlefrog]

Look like brachy hybrids in the flask. Definitely not my first rodeo, I've grown a whole lot of almost every kind of paph from flask, and have been doing it for 35 years... Enough that I knew they were brachy before Sam gave me the ID. Low growers, tight to the bottom of the flask and quite succulent leaves. Not floppy at all. Got some flasks of leucochilum and concolor at the same time, and the morphology was very similar (different, although I'd challenge anybody to distinguish between the species in flask). I don't have any reason to suspect these are mislabeled.

That said, there is always a certain amount of mislabeling risk with multiple hands (even with single hands). Doesn't matter who does the work. Mistakes could be made in recording the cross, or at the lab, or... Stories abound (I actually bought several of the 'sanderianum' that turned out to be Prince Edward of York, back in the... 90's? Even Orchid Zone made mistakes). But these are definitely brachypetalum.

 

[hope]

Thank you Rob for taking the time to reply! I was trying not to bother you with more questions since I know you must be very busy. Fibre's comments did make me worry a little, but I did feel like you would have noticed if they had looked odd when you washed them off and boxed them up for me. I feel alot better now. They seem to be doing well so far and I look forward to watching them get bigger.

 

[fibre]

Look like brachy hybrids in the flask. Definitely not my first rodeo, I've grown a whole lot of almost every kind of paph from flask, and have been doing it for 35 years... Enough that I knew they were brachy before Sam gave me the ID. Low growers, tight to the bottom of the flask and quite succulent leaves. Not floppy at all. Got some flasks of leucochilum and concolor at the same time, and the morphology was very similar (different, although I'd challenge anybody to distinguish between the species in flask). I don't have any reason to suspect these are mislabeled.

That said, there is always a certain amount of mislabeling risk with multiple hands (even with single hands). Doesn't matter who does the work. Mistakes could be made in recording the cross, or at the lab, or... Stories abound (I actually bought several of the 'sanderianum' that turned out to be Prince Edward of York, back in the... 90's? Even Orchid Zone made mistakes). But these are definitely brachypetalum.

Rob, with respect to your 35 years of orchid culture, these are flasks I would never have purchased. These leaves are too floppy and curved. They may be Brachys, but from a flasker who didn't do a good job. I've done lots of flasks of Brachys and hybrids with Brachys by myself and believe me, they look like miniature plants of their parents. Otherwise they are out of a terrible lab.