Trying my hand at sowing Bletilla

[John M]

Okay. Thanks for the info.

 

[Bjorn]

Having a background in chemistry, this topic attracts me immensly; But so far I have decided not to enter into the seed sowing business. Primarily because I have nowhere to dispose a potentially sucessful propagation. The market for these things here is next to nothing and since Norway is not a member of EU, well everything getys difficult and expensive.
Nevertheless, use of chlorine (guess you use Chlorox-type Gary) probably breaks down some of the compounds that inhibit germination. Xavier have written about those in his treatise on propagation, see the second link below.
http://eurobodalla.org.au/fileadmin...012/Paphiopedilum_culture_and_propagation.pdf
http://eurobodalla.org.au/fileadmin...012/In-Vitro_Cultivation_of_Paphiopedilum.pdf
http://eurobodalla.org.au/fileadmin...d/Perth_2012/Orchid_growing_substrates_01.pdf
Here Xavier suggest to use liquidnutrient solution for the germination and to remove the inhibitor by changing solution when it gets tainted. The danger with chlorine is of course that you overdo it and kill it, but perhaps a combination of a mild chlorine treatment together with Xaviers method could yield some interesting results for difficult species?
Just a suggestion.
B

 

[Ryan Young]

One of the chemicals I'm trying on 1/3 of the flasks (GA3) is also seed germination inducer so far these seeds look the most progressively swollen in the few days they are growing.

 

[NYEric]

But so far I have decided not to enter into the seed sowing business. Primarily because I have nowhere to dispose a potentially sucessful propagation. The market for these things here is next to nothing and since Norway is not a member of EU, well everything gets difficult and expensive.
B

You're kidding, right? If you can get seeds/flasks from your Paphs I will tell you how to get them to me easily.

Good luck. i'd take a flask/compot for sure.

Still the most relevant response to Ryan's initial post.

 

[Bjorn]

Eric, perhaps I should start to make seeds then? Any particular you have in mind? What would you do with it?
B

 

[NYEric]

Hmmmm, x album sounds like a good place to start!! Our friend PaphMania is selling flasklets of 5 plants for $150!

 

[Bjorn]

Helenae, right? Well that train went earlier this fall, but the plants look vigourous so next year......of course formosa and micranthum should be interesting as well, but that takes some years. The micranthums, eh, the four left seem to enjoy life, but not growing too vigourously so I have almost given up flowers this winter. The formosa, welll just two of them look great, but they sem to have stalled growt after potting.
So helenae should be the choice right? Adiitional to the various varieties of vietnamense, that big one carries seeds. A remarkable plant by the way, throws three shoots now but I expect that only two of them will make it. But it is pregnant now, so in eight months time we will have seeds of it.

 

[Ryan Young]

A quick update, the coconut & potatoes addition faired the best, the added chemicals batch made stringy thin grows, and the plain media aren't as vigorous as the coconut ones. (coconut potato mix in p668 media pictured). The could probably be replated but I don't have a clean box to do the replate. So I might just transfer to a seedling tray with a cover.



Some of the flasks ended up contaminated so I cleaned and moved the seedlings to a small container that I spread some seed unsterilized in, they are still growing as well.

 

[Ryan Young]

You're kidding, right? If you can get seeds/flasks from your Paphs I will tell you how to get them to me easily.


Still the most relevant response to Ryan's initial post.

I wanted to make sure I have some success before promising anything! There should be some available down the road sometime, I want to make sure they are travel size ready.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Looks like success to me. Can you downsize your photo though...

 

[Ryan Young]

Looks like success to me. Can you downsize your photo though...

Oops, fixed keep forgetting on mobile everything scales down to fit nicely, no matter what size.