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how do i grow orchid seeds?

ne3p

i think i planted them a little too close together
when one of my orchids flowered last year, i was bored and so decided to pollinate it. this has resulted in a large amount of rather dust like seed. i have had no previous experience growing orchids (other than putting them on a windowsill and watering them), and so i was wondering how to grow the seeds.

i believe the plant to be Paphiopedilum maudiae hybrid, and the pollen i used was taken from a Doritaenopsis of some kind (is it possible to cross these? i may have accidentally pollinated it using its own pollen).
 
It's gonna be hard. Paphs. ususally take to being germinated invitro for about a year. (Tissue Culture) Coincidentally this is exactly what I'm trying to do as an additional hobby/business. PM'ed you some further details.
 
You'd need certain symbiotic fungi for each species and use TC as Chris said. I'm no orchid person but I don't think paphs can make intergeneric hybrids.


There is some flasking company I remember and they do this for people... hell if I remember it.
 
Yup, that's gonna be ME JLAP. A new flasking service in process. There are no others, repeat after me, there are no others
 
i've been given a number of things to try by some other people. most of them appear to be completely insane. should be fun trying though.
 
A Paph can't cross with a Dtps. The first thing someone like Troy Meyers does is to mount a slide and check the seed for viable embryos. That seed won't have any. If you want to experiment with flasking, start with something that might succeed.
 
probably very sound advice. it was a nice thought anyway. i'm currently considering sending some to someone else that i know vaguely who actually grows orchid seeds, incase i self pollinated the plant.
 
just as an update: i was given a method involving banana, and it seems to have worked. i now have a number of very tiny plants growing in a jam jar. i will take a photo when they become big enough for my rather old camera (and when it is definite that they aren't anything like mould).
 
  • #10
What's the method? That seems awful fast, but I've never germinated orchid seeds.
 
  • #11
here's the method:
there ia an old way you may try as an experiment that is using 1/2 a banana mashed in a sterile bowl heated & put in a sterile jar put a nail hole in the lid & fill that with the cotton from a cotton bud wet with a fungicide . when the banana cools sprinkle seeds on top ,replace lid & PRAY. keep in a warm medium light level area & wait .orchid seed is not viable for long as it it is very fine & carries no food source

sadly i think they're all dead (by i think, i mean i wasn't completely sure what they were anyway), the banana has gone cloudy and formed a skin, a bit like the agar jelly at school when it goes bad.
 
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