Thanks John! Great tips. Since it’s super humid my babies are in a sunny place in my patio without the lids. They are doing fantastic!! I love to see them growing. I’ll send you a picture soon. 🎉
Good to hear that they are doing well. It seems that you know how to grow orchids!! A lot of people lose the babies because they are anxious to remove them from high humidity and do not protect them at all. So, I give the recommendation to keep them in the tubs for a while.
Thanks for the video, it is always nice to see the seedlings growing. And the longer the videos, the better. But I want to ask you about day light extension, 14 on / 10 off, 13/11, can you help with an optimum ratio? 😊 If there is one And do you know a way to make a culture of orchid root extracted mycorrhyzae? Is that possible, what should I feed them? Thanks again for the very nice videos 👍👍
I have not studied different day lengths on orchid seedling growth. I use 16:8 but that is left over from my early days with other plants in the lab. It works but may not be optimal. There are certainly ways to extract orchid mycorrhizae but I have not done this myself. I have asked the people that do this is they could potentially put together a recommended formulation that could be produced and they sent me their extraction protocol - I do not have time to do that. I have also heard stories about people who grind up roots from their orchids and inoculate that extract on the roots of their younger orchids as a method for mycorrhizal inoculation. I am not going to do that either. So, I am waiting for someone else to do these things......
Awesome video, again! About indoor grow-light x outdoor sunlight I do the later for simplicity, and I think that, beside the ones you pointed out, there may be yet another growth holdback from doing so: I'm not sure if very young plants respond to seasonal cycles like the grownups do, but if they do, they may halt growth at some point in the year, while the ones grown under artificial light have everlasting springtime! What do you think?
Great question - yes, if a plant has photoperiod sensitivity, it can influence the seedlings as well as the adult plant. I have a colleague who grows his seedlings in an indoor growth chamber for a year, specifically to avoid the dormancy period and get bigger plants fast. In my previous life with soybeans, the photoperiod for cultures and regenerated plants was intentionally kept long to avoid premature flowering. So, photoperiod can be used to get bigger plants (eternal spring) or a means to promote earlier flowering on certain plants....
I do outdoor sunlight from the very start, including germination and the whole in vitro phase. So I think that is one of the many reasons why it takes me some 18 months before they can come out of the jar. And that is an improvement... It used to be 24+ months for my first batches! I'll be very happy if I get to12 months, I'm hopeful for the vented jars to save me another couple of months or so! Thank you, Doc!
@@plantpropagator It does... But I am under no pressure at all to get consistency, so it is ok with me. And when it is time to acclimate, they will have to adapt to new less than 100% moisture conditions but not to a new light situation. I imagine it can make it a little easier on the seedling. It is surely not ideal if you are looking for consistency and high yield. But I think that the 50 to 150 plants I get to deflask per crossing will be the most well adapted to my outdoor climate. OR maybe I'm just looking for excuses and justification for my ultra low tech approaches... 😂
I know you generally pot your flasklings individually, if say a 'friend' had a flask of plants that are an inch or less would a community pot be a better option? They are a particularly tasty version of dowiana if that matters.
Some people like to use community pots but I do not. I prefer to disturb the roots once when the plants are deflasked and not twice, during the time that the plants in a community pot will need to be separated. That second disturbance is usually really rough since the roots can really be intertwined. In addition, if some of the plants in a community pot are more sensitive to a pathogen, those susceptible plants are right on top of or closely intermingles with the other plants, making them more likely to be infected. For me, there are no benefits to a community pot, other than to save time and media with the first deflasking. Sorry - I know that your friend will not be happy to hear this. But, I know some growers who mostly use this approach....
Great information! Do you happen to know if there have been any studies or information if virused plants infects/transmits virus to the seeds/flasks through mother plant or pollen plant?
First, I am not a virologist so this is not my area. The current thought is that viruses are not transmitted to the seed of orchids. But, they can be in the seed parent and care must be taken when extracting the seed to minimize damage to the seed capsule so that any viruses from a potentially infected seed parent are not mechanically transmitted to the seed.
Thanks for the rapid reply...that makes sense to me...for fertilizing i use a backpack sprayer like you do for my inside plants, which I have a lot of in the garage, for my outside plants I use the ortho dial and spray hose end for fertilizing... a person at my orchid society uses a 10 gallon rubbermaid trash can on a sort of wagon with a rechargeable battery powered garden wand to fertilize or others use an automated injector...
@@plantpropagator I understand you are not a virologist, but this leads me to another question, one I've been meaning to ask for a long time: Can orchids have any kind of STD? I mean, can the pollinia from an infected plant transmit any diseases to the seed parent?? Be it from viruses or otherwise? It would sound surprising to me if no pathogens had ever figured this pathway of infection yet.
@@Naturamorpho Wow - I do not think at this level!! My thoughts are how do I make prettier flowers. I do not know for sure how to answer you. I just think that transmission that results in reduced fecundity or vigor would have an evolutionary disadvantage and would not last - leading to nontransmission of the pathogen. Oh - I am not a pathologist either. Sorry - don't know....
If you are referring to the Den that I mention early in this video, I actually made the video on that plant today and will release it later this week! The cross was made on 6/25/22, the capsule was harvested on 10/4/22 and the first flowers on the first plant opened a few days ago. So, everything was fast! I remade the cross on 4/20/24 and the capsule is starting to yellow already so we may be off to the races again. Let me also admit that none of the other plants are spiking so this seems to be unusual. But, many of the other plants are pretty large for this soon after seed flasking. I do not keep records on deflasking dates as I have so many flasks that I deflask at different times. I hope that this answers your question.
@@plantpropagator that is remarkable! The reason I asked and yes you did answer my question is I have had Tolumnia Out of flask bloom within a year and it was in lab for only a short time. Add in the pollination and green pod maturation is seems to be pretty close to that duration. Very cool. Some plants in wild apparently need to quickly repopulate while others take longer . Makes sense , that adaptation is an orchid characteristic . My ionopsis seed pod I sent off to the lab has returned me 3 flasks and they are progressing along those same quick timelines.
@@seanhorgan288 I see where you are coming from but this is one plant of a standard Dendrobium that just happened to bloom very early. I think that I helped it along a little and I want to capitalize on this vigor and earliness by using the pollinia for other crosses (some of which I will do today).
Thanks John! Great tips. Since it’s super humid my babies are in a sunny place in my patio without the lids. They are doing fantastic!! I love to see them growing. I’ll send you a picture soon. 🎉
Good to hear that they are doing well. It seems that you know how to grow orchids!! A lot of people lose the babies because they are anxious to remove them from high humidity and do not protect them at all. So, I give the recommendation to keep them in the tubs for a while.
Very informational! Love all of these tips in one video!
I was wondering if this was too much, since I have said all of these things previously. But, I wanted to include this in one video.
Thanks for the video, it is always nice to see the seedlings growing. And the longer the videos, the better.
But I want to ask you about day light extension, 14 on / 10 off, 13/11, can you help with an optimum ratio? 😊 If there is one
And do you know a way to make a culture of orchid root extracted mycorrhyzae? Is that possible, what should I feed them?
Thanks again for the very nice videos 👍👍
I have not studied different day lengths on orchid seedling growth. I use 16:8 but that is left over from my early days with other plants in the lab. It works but may not be optimal.
There are certainly ways to extract orchid mycorrhizae but I have not done this myself. I have asked the people that do this is they could potentially put together a recommended formulation that could be produced and they sent me their extraction protocol - I do not have time to do that. I have also heard stories about people who grind up roots from their orchids and inoculate that extract on the roots of their younger orchids as a method for mycorrhizal inoculation. I am not going to do that either. So, I am waiting for someone else to do these things......
Awesome video, again! About indoor grow-light x outdoor sunlight I do the later for simplicity, and I think that, beside the ones you pointed out, there may be yet another growth holdback from doing so: I'm not sure if very young plants respond to seasonal cycles like the grownups do, but if they do, they may halt growth at some point in the year, while the ones grown under artificial light have everlasting springtime! What do you think?
Great question - yes, if a plant has photoperiod sensitivity, it can influence the seedlings as well as the adult plant. I have a colleague who grows his seedlings in an indoor growth chamber for a year, specifically to avoid the dormancy period and get bigger plants fast.
In my previous life with soybeans, the photoperiod for cultures and regenerated plants was intentionally kept long to avoid premature flowering. So, photoperiod can be used to get bigger plants (eternal spring) or a means to promote earlier flowering on certain plants....
I do outdoor sunlight from the very start, including germination and the whole in vitro phase. So I think that is one of the many reasons why it takes me some 18 months before they can come out of the jar. And that is an improvement... It used to be 24+ months for my first batches! I'll be very happy if I get to12 months, I'm hopeful for the vented jars to save me another couple of months or so! Thank you, Doc!
@@Naturamorpho I have never tried outdoor light for my flasking - the lack of environmental control scares me - must lead to inconsistent results.....
@@plantpropagator It does... But I am under no pressure at all to get consistency, so it is ok with me. And when it is time to acclimate, they will have to adapt to new less than 100% moisture conditions but not to a new light situation. I imagine it can make it a little easier on the seedling. It is surely not ideal if you are looking for consistency and high yield. But I think that the 50 to 150 plants I get to deflask per crossing will be the most well adapted to my outdoor climate. OR maybe I'm just looking for excuses and justification for my ultra low tech approaches... 😂
I know you generally pot your flasklings individually, if say a 'friend' had a flask of plants that are an inch or less would a community pot be a better option?
They are a particularly tasty version of dowiana if that matters.
Some people like to use community pots but I do not. I prefer to disturb the roots once when the plants are deflasked and not twice, during the time that the plants in a community pot will need to be separated. That second disturbance is usually really rough since the roots can really be intertwined. In addition, if some of the plants in a community pot are more sensitive to a pathogen, those susceptible plants are right on top of or closely intermingles with the other plants, making them more likely to be infected. For me, there are no benefits to a community pot, other than to save time and media with the first deflasking. Sorry - I know that your friend will not be happy to hear this. But, I know some growers who mostly use this approach....
Great information! Do you happen to know if there have been any studies or information if virused plants infects/transmits virus to the seeds/flasks through mother plant or pollen plant?
First, I am not a virologist so this is not my area. The current thought is that viruses are not transmitted to the seed of orchids. But, they can be in the seed parent and care must be taken when extracting the seed to minimize damage to the seed capsule so that any viruses from a potentially infected seed parent are not mechanically transmitted to the seed.
Thanks for the rapid reply...that makes sense to me...for fertilizing i use a backpack sprayer like you do for my inside plants, which I have a lot of in the garage, for my outside plants I use the ortho dial and spray hose end for fertilizing... a person at my orchid society uses a 10 gallon rubbermaid trash can on a sort of wagon with a rechargeable battery powered garden wand to fertilize or others use an automated injector...
@@plantpropagator I understand you are not a virologist, but this leads me to another question, one I've been meaning to ask for a long time: Can orchids have any kind of STD? I mean, can the pollinia from an infected plant transmit any diseases to the seed parent?? Be it from viruses or otherwise? It would sound surprising to me if no pathogens had ever figured this pathway of infection yet.
@@Naturamorpho Wow - I do not think at this level!! My thoughts are how do I make prettier flowers. I do not know for sure how to answer you. I just think that transmission that results in reduced fecundity or vigor would have an evolutionary disadvantage and would not last - leading to nontransmission of the pathogen. Oh - I am not a pathologist either. Sorry - don't know....
@@plantpropagator I'd say that if YOU have never heard of it, then even if it is possible it is certainly not a "big thing"...
Is the “ two years” , from the time they are out of flask? When is the clock started ? Thanks John
If you are referring to the Den that I mention early in this video, I actually made the video on that plant today and will release it later this week! The cross was made on 6/25/22, the capsule was harvested on 10/4/22 and the first flowers on the first plant opened a few days ago. So, everything was fast! I remade the cross on 4/20/24 and the capsule is starting to yellow already so we may be off to the races again. Let me also admit that none of the other plants are spiking so this seems to be unusual. But, many of the other plants are pretty large for this soon after seed flasking. I do not keep records on deflasking dates as I have so many flasks that I deflask at different times. I hope that this answers your question.
@@plantpropagator that is remarkable! The reason I asked and yes you did answer my question is I have had Tolumnia Out of flask bloom within a year and it was in lab for only a short time. Add in the pollination and green pod maturation is seems to be pretty close to that duration. Very cool. Some plants in wild apparently need to quickly repopulate while others take longer . Makes sense , that adaptation is an orchid characteristic . My ionopsis seed pod I sent off to the lab has returned me 3 flasks and they are progressing along those same quick timelines.
@@seanhorgan288 I see where you are coming from but this is one plant of a standard Dendrobium that just happened to bloom very early. I think that I helped it along a little and I want to capitalize on this vigor and earliness by using the pollinia for other crosses (some of which I will do today).
@@plantpropagator good idea
are you selling your flash outside u.s, thanks.
I have not yet sold outside the US - because I do not know the restrictions. If you let me know what is involved, I might consider it....