08-05-2010, 02:34 AM
|
 | Chief Of Staff | | Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne Australia
Posts: 12,816
Thanks: 3,890
Thanked 5,322 Times in 2,966 Posts
| |
The answers to your questions are long and very involved. Take orchids4me's advice and do some searching on the forum and also read some books on the tiopic for more complete answers to your questions. But, I'll try to give you some quick, simple answers. Quote:
Originally Posted by Dihcro  1. What is flasking? How do you flask an orchid? | Flasking is what we call the whole process of sowing and germinating orchid seeds. Orchid seeds are tiny, and I do mean TINY, dust like even. Unlike other plants orchid seeds do not have the initial fat leaves that sustain the bby plant until it can grow leaves of its own. So orchid seeds need ot land in a place that already has the perfect balance of nutrients and moisture. In nature, an orchid pod will release a couple of million seeds into the air and out fo all of those seeds maybe half a dozen plants will grow. In cultivation to increase the number of seeds that germinate, we "flask" orchids. What we do is sow the seeds in a sterile flask in an agar solution containing nutrients. The flask is sealed and the tiny little seeds germinate and start to grow. Quote:
Originally Posted by Dihcro 2. How do you pollinate an orchid? What do I need to do it? | All you need is an orchid in flower and a tooth pick. Orchids do not release their pollen into the air like other flowers. The pollen is found in little sacs under neath the pollen cap. the pollen cap is found at the end of the column. Just pop the pollen cap off and you'll see the little yellow pollen sacs. Take a toothpick and remove the pollen sac and place it in the sticky hollow place on the underside of the column. It's as simple as that. If the pollination takes your flower will die off within a couple of days but the ovary will stay. Quote:
Originally Posted by Dihcro 3. A relative of mine has African Violets, and I read somewhere that they are cousins with orchids. She cuts parts off of her African Violets and puts them in a cup of water until they grow roots, then plants them in some soil. Can I do that with orchids? | African violets are not closely related to orchids. You can can propigate some orchids by dividing them into two plants but this only works wiht some kinds fo orchids, not all. It depends on what kind to have.
__________________  |
Similar Threads 
Linear Mode
