Phalaenopsis from seed.

Hi @hydrogardener do you have more details of how you set up your sterile conditions please? I have always wanted to try this but the things I read made it look a massive amount of work, and needing supplies that are not readily available in hobby quantities

 

There is a post on my blog regarding how I started the orchid seeds.

Hydroponic Workshop: April 2018

Also, there are a number of sites and videos on youtube if you search for starting orchid seeds at home.

I used a pressure cooker, but some people use a microwave and get results. Instead of a laminar flow hood I used a clear tote from Wal-Mart. Everything is sprayed with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol to to sterilize it. The tools and vessels must be sterile. The media I purchased on Ebay and it is not expensive. I tried making my own but found it cheaper to just buy it on Ebay.

If you have questions send me a message and I will see if I can help.

Good luck.

 

I crossed it with a miniature plant with all purple flowers so the hybrid should be interesting.

 

They are almost ready to leave the nest.

 

That is very impressive! Well done

 

Yes, seriously impressive! Have you ended up growing on thousands?

 

I hardly have room for one let alone thousands! A few of the larger more vigorous plants will be grown on, and even those will probably be given away. There is another plant with seed pods that I intend to work with. The pods from that plant contain seeds that were cross-pollinated last spring. The parents are a large and a miniature phalaenopsis. I will surely keep one of those plants if successful.

 

Ooo @hydrogardener - that is very controlled of you. I'd always be afraid that the one I kept turned out rubbish, and the ones I discarded could have been fantastic - with hybrids you never know...

 

Today I decided to deflask one of the phalaenopsis seedlings to see if they are ready to live outside of the flasks. The seedling was planted in sphagnum moss moistened with a dilute nutrient solution and will be initially grown in a domed container then gradually be acclimated to life outside the dome.

 

As my test plant is doing nicely I decided to deflask one more plant. Then, I saw another promising plant I just could not throw away, then another, and another and so on, until at eight I decided enough is enough. I will ask my wife to get rid of the excess plants before I have a house full of them.

 

Careful - a woman can decide that all plants are excess if the mood takes her

 

I told you that there'd be a temptation to keep more!

 

Interesting project.
Well done on getting some seedlings.

I have considered growing fern spore in vitro.
But I think it must be difficult to have everything 100% contaminant free - particularly the spore themselves.

 

It would seem to be the same as orchid seeds. They were sterilized by soaking them in a syringe with hydrogen peroxide and then using the syringe to place them on the media under sterile conditions. The syringe came from a pharmacy and is used to administer medicine to babies by mouth, there is no needle involved.

My loss to contamination was much less than expected, less than 20% I would estimate.

 

I have four plants left after giving several plants to friends. One of the baby plants has a spike and I am looking forward to seeing what the flowers look like, as the flowers on the parent plant were huge. The difference in the size and appearance of the resulting plants is amazing,
considering they all came from the same parent and were never more than a few inches apart during their entire existence. Inherited genetics is strange indeed.