Igor at work

My assistant Igor, aka Ava, has tiny little fingers that work really well planting tiny little plants. We spent a pleasant afternoon deflasking micro-cloned Cattleya orchid seedlings today. She salvaged the tiny plants while I worked on the larger plants. Under normal growing conditions, these should take 10-18 months. I intend to grow them under a large LED grow light to see if that speeds up the process.

I did not clone these plants but purchased a hobby flask from a lab. It is an inexpensive way to acquire orchids as they averaged out to about a dollar a plant.

Although I did not clone this batch I am attempting to cross two Phalaenopsis plants and germinate the seeds using tissue culture. Also, today I pollinated a Cattleya flower in hopes of obtaining seeds for planting.
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At some point in the near future, I will attempt to microclone orchids.

Fantastic-I created seed for orchids. I read all about germinating and gave up. seemed too difficult and a bit of an outlay of money. I found a place that would germinate my seeds for a fairly small sum of money. Some where I lost my motivation..I am very impressed!

She is learning so much from helping you. What a treat!

so lucky said:

She is learning so much from helping you. What a treat!

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After she helped me she went upstairs where my wife is teaching her to cook, bake and crochet. We send her home worn to a frazzle.

jackb said:

After she helped me she went upstairs where my wife is teaching her to cook, bake and crochet. We send her home worn to a frazzle.

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Exhausted from learning. Fantastic.

WOW Jack that is so impressive. Lucky Ava to have you and your DH to learn and play with. Many life lessons learned in such a warm and loving way. Lucky, lucky girl.

catjac1975 said:

Fantastic-I created seed for orchids. I read all about germinating and gave up. seemed too difficult and a bit of an outlay of money. I found a place that would germinate my seeds for a fairly small sum of money. Somewhere I lost my motivation..I am very impressed!

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I purchased my seeds on eBay for about two dollars just to see how difficult it would be to germinate them. Never having seen Phalanaposis seeds before I was about to discard the detritus from my eBay purchase, however, before I tossed it into the scrap I thought I would take a peek at it with my microscope. At it turns out, there are more seeds in the detritus than I planted. So, I am going to sterilize the whole mess and deposit it on the media and see what happens.

jackb said:

I purchased my seeds on eBay for about two dollars just to see how difficult it would be to germinate them. Never having seen Phalanaposis seeds before I was about to discard the detritus from my eBay purchase, however, before I tossed it into the scrap I thought I would take a peek at it with my microscope. At it turns out, there are more seeds in the detritus than I planted. So, I am going to sterilize the whole mess and deposit it on the media and see what happens.

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OMG_MAKE YOUR OWN_that is the easy part and so much fun-. Hey maybe I'll make some and you can germinate them!

I have already started, I have to wait until the pod matures. In the meantime, I am experimenting with seeds from eBay. I am not going to purchase media so I am trying a few recipes to brew my own. I have another package coming this week that I paid .99 for, so if they don't germinate it is no big deal. And, I think sterilizing everything is the way to go, the seeds are too tiny to deal with. As it is you have to use a syringe to pick them up and place them on the media. In addition to the media, I am trying a few different procedures to sterilize and place the seeds. My main concern at this point is contamination, as I am just about out of PPM and don't intend to buy any more. Germination, if it happens, should take about 45 days. If this does not work I'll clone a few, but I am not going to waste a lot of time with seeds.

I miss hearing about the adventures of Ava. Nice to see her again.

Mary