Propagation of Phalaenopsis Help

[pietro]

Hello everyone, I am new in this forum. I am trying to propagate My Phals, I used agar and knudson media that I purchased in Plantmedia. So far, I have two encouraging signs:

1.-( no fungi)!)sterile flasks!

2.- some seeds appear to be "swalowing" and in some cases some seem to be growing upwards;


My problem is that is really hard to know if they are doing anything.

I planted them in 11-21, does any one know how long will it take for me to notice something clear?, I keep them at 22-25 Degrees (centigrade). When will I know if seeds have germinated and are developint? (visually).


also, when preparing the media, I forgot to adjust the PH to 5.0 so I assume is close to 6.0. Will this have an effect?.

Thank you all for your help.


Pietro

[bloomorchidguy]

A few things to note here. Given your situation I won't expect to see any germination just yet. Most of my phals in flask take about 30 to 45 days to start to green up. At 2 to 3 months in flask you should see protocorms and leaves starting to develop or already developed. Most of my phals from flask have at least one set of leaves maybe two at about 6 months. I remove them from flask at about 14 to 16 months. By this time they have about 4 or 5 nice sized roots and are about 2 to 3 inch plants.

I'd say your temps are just fine. My flask area see daytime temps that vary from 22C to 26C(72F to 77F) and night time off around 18C to 20C(65F to 68F). Most flasks I treat almost the same for epiphytes. pH is usually around 5.8 to 6.2 after my media is mixed. You should be fine.

Terrestrials I tend to treat differently with light exposure, pH tends to be a bit lower normally around 4.7 to 5.5 after my media is mixed.

Another thing to keep in mind is seed harvest time. If you harvest your seed and do green pod factor in the maturity of the seed. Dry seed tends to be more mature and will germinate a bit faster then green pod methods. That can always factor in a few weeks.

From my own experiences I have experience seed that has germinated in 1 month and some that took as long as 9 months for seed to germinate. Once I have germination I usually replate my protocorms to fresh media at about 45 to 60 days seems to give me the best results. I space my protocorms at about a 1/4 inch apart this yields about 25 to 30 plants for each flask plus will produce a 2 to 3 inch leaf span plant, or 2 to 3 growth plant.

Hope this helps.

Troy

[pietro]

Thanks a lot for your advice. The reason I asked is because something seems to be happening, and is the first time I have complet sterile conditions. I appreciate your help.

[fred]

welcome to the forum pietro
please feel free and go to our Introduction section and Introduce yourself to all of our wonderful "Geeks"

[lmartiny]

Hello, welcome. I can't help you with your questions. But someone can. I'm not an exerienced "geek But someone will pipe in to answer.

[pietro]

is the apparent swallowing a sign of activity in the seed>?

[bloomorchidguy]

Yes you are correct! That is normally a sign that the seed is just starting to germinate.

Troy