Trithor
Chico (..... the clown)
This will be an interesting one to raise from seed. Can you imagine? Wow!
Paph sangii
- Thread starter Rick
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Rick
Well-Known Member
No pretty pale at base of plant.
How many growths is your plant? This one hasn't started a second growth yet. But lots of my barbata types often don't make growths until well after the blooming.
How are your leaves? I have a couple of the regular and the ajubianum variety and the regular has much "duller" leaves than the var. ajubilanum. Have not flowered any of them yet, so I cannot guarantee the varieties, but that's what they were sold as.
SlipperKing
Madd Virologist
Mine has a fairly strong maroon base on a whitish background. A single strong growth great roots since I cut out the overkill of fertilizer. My volonteanum did fine holding a pod for 9-10 months on a single growth. Now it has two nice growths coming on. My leaf color looks like a "typical" sangii on top.
Rick
Well-Known Member
The roots on this plant are also very good (coming out the sides of the basket). So I'm not too worried about this plant going into multiple growths.
Its been pretty weird lately that I've been getting more "spontaneous" capsule starts on single growth plants.
My first blooming mastersianum seedling started a capsule without being pollinated, and the new growth is coming on fine. I recently harvested the seed after roughly 10 months on the plant, and there are embryos in the seed. Troy has the seed for flasking now, so we'll see if it germinates.
I also wasn't planning on breeding my first blooming sanderianum, but that is also holding a capsule (on a single growth plant).
Compared to the material "cost" of making flowers, the production of orchid seed is virtually 0 (especially for slippers). So I'm not real concerned about breeding plants on single growths.
The only concern that has been brought up before, is whether or not a plant supporting a capsule maintains a different hormonal balance that precludes making new growths and roots. So far I haven't seen that happen too much either in any groups outside of barbata types. But that is the subgenera that I've had the most problems with over the years, which makes me a bit more cautious with them.
Its been pretty weird lately that I've been getting more "spontaneous" capsule starts on single growth plants.
My first blooming mastersianum seedling started a capsule without being pollinated, and the new growth is coming on fine. I recently harvested the seed after roughly 10 months on the plant, and there are embryos in the seed. Troy has the seed for flasking now, so we'll see if it germinates.
I also wasn't planning on breeding my first blooming sanderianum, but that is also holding a capsule (on a single growth plant).
Compared to the material "cost" of making flowers, the production of orchid seed is virtually 0 (especially for slippers). So I'm not real concerned about breeding plants on single growths.
The only concern that has been brought up before, is whether or not a plant supporting a capsule maintains a different hormonal balance that precludes making new growths and roots. So far I haven't seen that happen too much either in any groups outside of barbata types. But that is the subgenera that I've had the most problems with over the years, which makes me a bit more cautious with them.
paphioboy
hehehe...
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I'm surprised by this statement, if I understand you correctly. I would have thought seed production (especially since the plant holds the pod for sucha long time), would be exhausting to the mother plant. Which is why we often recommend not setting pods on single growth plants... Could you elaborate?
Rick
Well-Known Member
The capsule/ovary walls and stems are photosynthetic (almost as good as leaves).
And unlike every other plant on the face of the earth, orchid seed has no starch/food store attached to the embryo (that's a major saving of resources right there). Orchids developed the relationship with mycorrhizal fungi to feed their babies to save having to store sugar up in the capsule.
The long duration of producing a capsule (in some species) is also yet another way of conserving effort and letting the capsule walls themselves do all the "work" of maturing the seed. (This is probably a minor concern with more important factors such as storage to wait for appropriate environmental season to release the seed).
But overall the comparison of orchids to human mothers is totally invalid. Humans are not photosynthetic, and orchid embryos are just a tiny handful of cells compared to a complete human baby constructed from a handful of cells.
The energetic equivalent of making orchid embryos is closer to human males making sperm.
phraggy
Well-Known Member
Very interesting thread and posts.
Ed
Ed
Rick
Well-Known Member
Here's some plant and flower pics from different angles.
SlipperKing
Madd Virologist
Humm... Your leaf pattern does look kind of like mine. The boldness of the pattern is the only difference? Sorry, this is the only pic I have at the moment. Maybe, mine is miss labeled(?)
Humm... Your leaf pattern does look kind of like mine. The boldness of the pattern is the only difference? Sorry, this is the only pic I have at the moment. Maybe, mine is miss labeled(?)
My sangii leaf looks much like RicK's. Where did you get this clone?
SlipperKing
Madd Virologist
SlipperFan
Addicted
Nothing wrong with your photo, Rick.
SlipperKing
Madd Virologist
Interesting. So what is this variety, ajubianum?
SlipperKing
Madd Virologist
Hummm... don't know that I would like a happy one!:rollhappy:
