My First Deflasking Project-Phal. Brother Sara Gold

[ARodney]

I decided to try my hands at deflasking so I ordered a flask about a month ago from Orchids by Hausermanns. It was Phal. Brother Sara Gold. The guy on the telephone was very helpful when I told him it was my first attempt to deflask. He also told he I could leave them in the flask until all of the agar was gone. That's why it took my a month to deflask them. What he failed to tell me was if the agar got shifted around or messed up in the shipping, I would have to deflask. That particular bit of information I got while reading older threads on this forum.

Any way, today, I finally bit the bullet and deflasked my babies I will admit I was a little nervous, but my husband thought I was very smart and knew what I was doing. He even told me he was impressed, when he saw me take his very long screw driver and hit the bottom of the flask to push out the bottom to avoid smashing the babies (of course, I didn't tell him someone suggested that on this very forum). Anyway, attached are photographs of the process. After reading all of the threads on deflasking, the following is what I did:

1. I took of stopper and left to air out for about 4 hours to climatize
2. Gathered all of materials to be used for deflasking and potting.
3. After hitting bottom of flask out, I ran some warm water through so that
agar could rinse off. Removed from flask and rinsed them with warm water.
I then placed in first bowl of warm water (second pix)
4. Seperated them and observed some were starting to get soft and mushy,
almost like root rot. Took out all of the soft root tissue and placed in
second bowl that had a capful of RD20 (RD20 is a fungicide, viruscide,
bacteriacide and algeacide. Let them soak in the water for about 10 min.
5. Took them out of second bath and layed them out to dry. As I took them
out, I seperated them by size.
6. I put them outside in the indirect sun for 15minutes (read that in the forum
too). While babies were taking their sunrays, I soake the sphag in water
with a little bit of fertilizer and a half cap of RD20.
7. After the 15minutes, I notice the roots looked a little white. I let them sit
a little under a fan, while I prepared the labels and the pots. I placed
packing peanuts and some damp sphag in the pots.
8. Potted the babies according to size. The two bigger ones I potted together
the others I potted in groups, like I said according to size.
9. I then place in a upside down clear bin to help with humidity.

Now that I have exhausted you, or bored you with all of the details of my deflasking, I would really appreciate any advise or suggestions or corrections, if I did anything wrong. Hopefully, I didn't do anything wrong, I had better cause I got two flask more coming and they are coming from Troys.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Adelia

[switchblade]

good job man. I want to try flasking for myself just curious about it since i have never seen seedlings in the wild

[Ron]

fter reading all of the threads on deflasking, the following is what I did:

1. I took of stopper and left to air out for about 4 hours to climatize

No need to do this, personally I have my sink full of luke warm water and break the flask into this and wash the babys.

2. Gathered all of materials to be used for deflasking and potting.
3. After hitting bottom of flask out, I ran some warm water through so that
agar could rinse off. Removed from flask and rinsed them with warm water.

Good idea to clean them up a bit

I then placed in first bowl of warm water (second pix)
4. Seperated them and observed some were starting to get soft and mushy,
almost like root rot. Took out all of the soft root tissue and placed in
second bowl that had a capful of RD20 (RD20 is a fungicide, viruscide,
bacteriacide and algeacide. Let them soak in the water for about 10 min.

Good idea and well done!

5. Took them out of second bath and layed them out to dry. As I took them
out, I seperated them by size.
6. I put them outside in the indirect sun for 15minutes (read that in the forum
too). While babies were taking their sunrays, I soake the sphag in water
with a little bit of fertilizer and a half cap of RD20.
7. After the 15minutes, I notice the roots looked a little white. I let them sit
a little under a fan, while I prepared the labels and the pots. I placed
packing peanuts and some damp sphag in the pots.
I do not uderstand this so called hardening off process, after washing and drying off for a minute or so I place them back into my compot mix and then water in with a fungicide

8. Potted the babies according to size. The two bigger ones I potted together
the others I potted in groups, like I said according to size.

Good idea and well done
9. I then place in a upside down clear bin to help with humidity.
Very good idea
Now that I have exhausted you, or bored you with all of the details of my deflasking, I would really appreciate any advise or suggestions or corrections, if I did anything wrong. Hopefully, I didn't do anything wrong, I had better cause I got two flask more coming and they are coming from Troys.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Adelia[/QUOTE]
Hi Adelia.
Well done for your first attempt. I hope you do not mind a few pointers to help out, not critism but hepful advice.

Remember Phallies are tropical and these babys need to be kept warm, try and keep the around 71 to 75 degrees!
When I get my flasks I deflask them straigh away, they have come out of a lab running around 80F, big drop after removing them would not be to their advantage.
Best of luck with them and keep us informed of their progress
Cheerio

[1joyceh]

Great job Adelia!!!
they look great in the compots, healthy and happy

[ARodney]

Ron, just wanted to let you know I live on a tropical island where the lowest temp at night may go to 65 degrees F and that is on a rear occasion. The lowest day temp is 85 degree F temp it may go to 75 degrees if it has been raining for a few days and the sun is hiding. To tell you the truth, I have a hard time keeping my orchids hydrated and not overwatered or root rot. So my biggest fear with these babies will be not dehydrating them or overheating them. Thank you for your advise Ron.

Joyce, thank you for your comment.

[orchids4me]

They look great! I got the same flask a couple months ago from Hausermanns, first time I've ever got a flask to de flask (I usually get mine from troy)
Same thing scrambled agar/Phals. I was able to get mine all out without breaking the jar. Kept the jar for a memory of my first. I had been seeking this phal for almost 2 years and the price for the flask was a bargan couldn't pass it up
Good luck with them!!

[ARodney]

Originally Posted by orchids4me

They look great! I got the same flask a couple months ago from Hausermanns, first time I've ever got a flask to de flask (I usually get mine from troy)
Same thing scrambled agar/Phals. I was able to get mine all out without breaking the jar. Kept the jar for a memory of my first. I had been seeking this phal for almost 2 years and the price for the flask was a bargan couldn't pass it up
Good luck with them!!

Thanks Emmaye. How are your babies doing? I had to break the flask cause I was scared to damage the babies. Two of them were pretty big. They actually could have been potted individually but I choose to pot them together for humidity. Any tips, tricks or suggestions?

[orchids4me]

Originally Posted by ARodney

Thanks Emmaye. How are your babies doing? I had to break the flask cause I was scared to damage the babies. Two of them were pretty big. They actually could have been potted individually but I choose to pot them together for humidity. Any tips, tricks or suggestions?

Do you have a greenhouse ?? I don't so hardening off with these was easy actually thes are very hardy . No brown or drying edges or tips with these. Other thinner leaf type orchids this can happen a lot. Most of mine were big enough to pot up in 3 inch slotted plastic pots in sphag. I use the NZ AAA kind.when the Sphag starts to get crunchy water them. With all my babys I grdually introduce them to higher light week to week seeing how they do as I go. I fertilized mine for the first time Msu 1/4 strength a couple weeks ago they seemed to handle it we'll I will post pics of them later today (I'm still at work) if you like to see them. The smaller ones I pit individually in little seeling pans with holes (72 hole seed starter pan/greenhouses I use for the smaller plants.). other than that temps lower light at forst and basic phal culture they do fine

[ARodney]

Originally Posted by orchids4me

Do you have a greenhouse ?? I don't so hardening off with these was easy actually thes are very hardy . No brown or drying edges or tips with these. Other thinner leaf type orchids this can happen a lot. Most of mine were big enough to pot up in 3 inch slotted plastic pots in sphag. I use the NZ AAA kind.when the Sphag starts to get crunchy water them. With all my babys I grdually introduce them to higher light week to week seeing how they do as I go. I fertilized mine for the first time Msu 1/4 strength a couple weeks ago they seemed to handle it we'll I will post pics of them later today (I'm still at work) if you like to see them. The smaller ones I pit individually in little seeling pans with holes (72 hole seed starter pan/greenhouses I use for the smaller plants.). other than that temps lower light at forst and basic phal culture they do fine

Currently I have them inside the house in a bin for humidity, but I want to put them outside within the next two weeks. I have a shade house. The daylight temp is 85-90 degrees and night temp is 69-75 degree. I'm hoping I would be able to aclimatize without causing any stress.

[orchids4me]

Just try to protect them from bus and insects that like to eat tender young leaves

[ARodney]

Originally Posted by orchids4me

Just try to protect them from bus and insects that like to eat tender young leaves

Thanks for the tip. I will.

[plucker]

deflasking is so much fun. You get to watch them grow up too.
For my next project I am going to try them in different medias to see what is best.

[Dane]

I have also just taken up the new skill of deflasking.....I potted my phal seedlings about almost a month ago. I was told to deflask the seedlings using the same method but instead of using compots i used individual pots. I used individual pots because i had heard about seedlings damping off. Individual potting only allows one plant to damp off or die and does not spread like in a compot. I am happy with the results of only 5 dieing and 20 are still alive. Give this a try to experiment which method works for you.

[vanda_obsession]

look at all them babies!!! awesome! I hope to try my hand at this one day...

[Dane]

Just recived 2 phal seedlings from my orchid society,now the challenge is keeping them alive!