Help with deflasking

[escualida]

Hi all,

Yesterday I received a flask of Blc. Mem. Vida Lee 'Limelight' which was badly shaken up. As you can see there is agar everywhere, although I've managed to get most of the plants pretty much upright.



I've read a lot about deflasking and some people say to deflask immediately after receiving it if it's shaken up, and other sites, like this one Deflasking orchid seedlings say that it won't hurt the plants to not deflask immediately, and that in fact I should let them acclimate to my conditions.

As you can also see in the picture, the plants are still very, very small and I'm afraid if I take them out now their chances of survival will be really low. Here is a picture of one of the flasks from the grower where the plants look much bigger, this flask is the one pictured on their listing and is supposed to be of the same lot as mine. Something tells me I should wait for them to get this big.



Of course this is my first flask so I'd love it if others could give their opinions on when I should start deflasking and why.

Thanks in advance!

[WhiteRabbit]

good luck!

[orchidsarefun]

can't you check with the grower ? if he says deflask and they all die, would he replace the flask ? The same with not deflasking. If he says you needn't and the same happens, would he replace the flask ? I am not sure if you can get some sort of a guarantee. IMHO he shouldn't have sent a flask with such small seedlings......
In any event please let us know what you decide to do. I am going to get my first replated flasks from a cross I made in a few months, and any info is worthwhile.

[james mickelso]

Bourbon or scotch? I can deflask better than most.

[orchidsarefun]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Bourbon or scotch? I can deflask better than most.

maybe not any more tonight ?

[escualida]

Thanks orchidsarfun I'm going to email the grower and see what he says. They do look a tad small though don't they?

[Stray59]

Esculaida:
I have just started deflasking - I lost almost all of my first two flasks but I had not sterilized my medium and a pathogen was present. On the third flask I have 100% survival rate after one week!
The flask I emptied was really shook up also; I emptied it immediately. My thought on this is that the plants are already in a traumatized state due to the shipping. I wanted to be able to get then into a stable medium so they can go ahead and get over the trauma and start to recover from all of it.
I held onto one of the first flasks for a few days, but cannot say that this was what caused the loss as all the initial tries were failures due to my medium.
I found that it was easiest to empty the flask with a sterile paperclip that I straightened and bent a hook on the end of it. Then I just eased the little guys out. I then soaked them in a B-1 transplant hormone and Captan for a fungicide. I moved them into a bed of NZ sphagnum moss that had a layer of moist coco-chips beneath it. AGAIN - Sterilize EVERYTHING. The tray, the new medium, everything. As I am a smoker I am PARANOID about transmitting Tobacco Mosaic Virus so I wore surgical gloves when I was transplanting. Again, after 1 week I everyone - even the little squirrely looking ones, are still alive and well.
By the way - I was able to get 114 seedlings out of my flask - don't be surprised if yours contain more than you think!
If I can help anymore, I'll be glad to. And if anyone else know better - please chime in. I am still learning too.
Best of luck
Steve
p.s. - I have attached some pics of my little ones; they are a Hawkinsara hybrid.

[orchidsarefun]

yours look great - and congrats on the painstaking patience to do all that. I split up a Miltoniopsis Compot and that took me 2 hrs for about 40 seedlings.
A tip I read about. Soak the sphag moss in a fertiliser mix prior to transplant and that should last until the next transplant.

[Stray59]

I soaked my sphagnum in the transplant hormone to ease the stress, along with Captan for fungus - a mild fertilizer would be good also. As I lost hundreds to a soil pathogen, I will be sure and microwave all of my medium before use from now on!
Steve

[escualida]

Thanks Steve your info was really helpful, how did you sterilize the media? If it was in the microwave, how long does it need to be in there?

Also, is the B-1 transplant hormone the same as Super Thrive?