Flower Gardens

» Carcass - Orchid Seed Pod

Hello I have what I think is a seed pod developing on one of my orchids and was wondering if anyone has any information or advice for me. Do you reccomend sending it to any particular labs? When do I send it? I thought about growing it at home, but I'm not sure if I could accomplish the necessary sterile conditions. Thanks, Mark.

-- posted by Carcass

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» Cottage_Garden - Orchid Seed Pod

In response to Orchid Seed Pod posted by Carcass:

Hi Mark! That is very cool. First off you have a little time to think about this and decide what to do.

Before harvesting the seeds, you have to wait until the seeds are mature. This can take say three months or up to a year depending on what kind of orchid you are growing. (Here is a table showing pod times, from Sam Fifer.)

Then you have a choice, whether to try to start them from the still-green pod or wait until the pod actually splits open on its own.

Although it sounds a bit intimidating to start the seeds yourself at home, sending them to a lab would not really solve the problem because the little baby orchids have to be grown in flasks for months, and eventually have to be moved up to larger flasks. So you would still have the same sterile conditions/equipment needs.

Having said all that, you also need to think about what you are trying/hoping to achieve with the seeds. By that I mean, how serious is this?

If you are hybridizing and have a breeding program going, then in the long run you should probably figure out how to do this yourself -- more economical and also you will probably give your seeds the best care rather than having someone else do it for you.

If you are a casual home orchid grower for fun and just happen to have a seedpod and want to see what happens, then why not fool around with it and see if you can devise a set up at home. If nothing else it would be pretty interesting to try.

The other thing to keep in mind is that orchids take a really long time to bloom from seed. Say, three to five years would be typical but ten years is not all that unusual. So... all in all this is not an easy thing to do.

I've got links to a couple of sets of instructions on how to do this at home that you may find interesting in considering the options. I'll add them in another post.

-- posted by Cottage_Garden

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» Cottage_Garden - Orchid Seed Starting Manual

I am listing these in no particular order, these are information sources.

Here is an ultra-quick overview on orchid propagation from the Smithsonian.

Here are some pretty straight forward directions that address green pod vs. mature pod and how to proceed. This is the Seed Manual Instructions from Orchid Source Laboratory and Nursery.

-- posted by Cottage_Garden

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» Cottage_Garden - Flasking at Home

The Orchid Seedbank Project has technical information on their web site and it takes some sifting to find what you want, but there is LOTS of practical detail there. For example, here is information on using a pressure cooker (instead of autoclave) and bleach to sterilize, and using baby jars and mason jars instead of actual lab equipment.

Flasking

Sowing and Media

and the general list of topics.

-- posted by Cottage_Garden

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» Cottage_Garden - The Growing Room

The other consideration about growing orchids from seed is what are you going to do with all the resulting orchids? Here is a great photo of a growing room (by Linda Fortner)to give you an idea.

-- posted by Cottage_Garden

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» Cottage_Garden - Equipment List -- Orchid Seed Starting at Home

Linda Fortner used to write about orchids at suite101.com (and at her own web site as the orchid lady.) She provided this detailed home version of orchid seed growing equipment list and also included a photo of a flasking case.

The four part article she wrote on starting orchid seeds starts here, unfortunately since it was written five years ago many of the links do not work any more but the overall information is still valid.

-- posted by Cottage_Garden

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» Cottage_Garden - Home Flasking Made Simple

One more link, this one may be my favorite. Sam Fifer's Home Flasking Instructionsat the Lincoln (Nebraska)Orchid Society web site. Clear and concise.

I hope this helps!

-- posted by Cottage_Garden

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