Cymbidium seed sowing

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Reviresco

I read an article some time ago how in the early days of orchid growing they used to sow the seed from cymbidiums on the compost around the top of a growing plant , or in a tray using spent compost from repotting , photos were included with a few seedlings growing. Has any else heard or tried this .
This may have been in an old orchid review I can't really remember

Before the discovery of how to grow orchid seeds in flask on agar medium (Knudson, 1921) seeds were sown on medium of existing plants to take advantage of mycorrhizae from the mature plants. The symbiotic relationship between fungi and development of orchid seeds was understood long before the discovery of how to nourish them in vitro. Not only Cymbidiums but Catts and other hybrids in the early days of orchid hybridizing were grown this way.

Check out Lewis Knudson - Wikipedia