Well, here are my progress photos, two weeks apart. The first photo in each pair was taken July 17, about 3 weeks after deflasking. The second photo in each pair was taken today. Almost all are showing some leaf and root growth; obviously, some are growing faster than others.
So far I haven't seen a difference between the K-lite (with occasional seaweed) and the fish/seaweed fertilizer growth rates.
well you were up early looking at this page.... lol they look nice and healthy good job, I just deflasked some Paraphalaenopsis denevei a week ago. so far I think i lost one.. a tiny little guy but still go about 20 + I just mounted mine with some coconut fiber and they seem to be producing new roots already!!!!
I just examined my seedlings very closely, and found several plants with root rot. What's really surprising is where the rot is starting - at the base of the plants, just where the roots exit the plant, in the portion that is not yet submerged in sphagnum moss. Looking at the condition of the plants, the rot does progress downward toward the tip of the root, eventually killing the root. Some of the plants have died as well.
Why would rot start in the driest portion of the root? I can actually see the tiny white mold spores on some of the affected roots. This is really frustrating, but I guess it goes to prove that sphagnum does, in fact, have some anti-fungal properties, and it's protecting roots that are completely covered by it.
In the meantime, what can I do to prevent this from spreading? I haven't used sulphur spray in about 3 weeks, should I start using it again?
Alla, sorry about your seedlings problem, hopefully it stops right there.
I only deflasked three flasks , but from my small experience - combination of wet + cold can start rot anywhere on the seedling.
When I grew my seedlings under domes, I would leave domes open for couple hours after spraying to give the seedlings chance to dry out a bit.
A question for experienced seedling growers: when you populate your compots, do you select seedlings of about the same size, or do you mix strong growers with the runts? I mixed them up, but then I saw Orchideya's beautiful year-old compots on ebay, with all the plants within millimetres of each other, and I just wondered whether mixing up the sizes was a good idea. It was certainly convenient for me.
Al, I was curious about that as well, for the most part, I put similarly sized seedlings together, just b/c that's what I noticed from other pics from other ppl.... Also, when I've received compost from Peter Lin, all of the seedlings were basically the same size.
Also, I have noticed some of my flasklings are losing the upper portion of their roots, just the way you describe. I need to unpot them & check, but when I have dug around, the roots covered w/ moss, are perfectly fine. I've lost a few roots here & there, & have lost a few seedlings (about 5), but not too many, and only one or two to what you're describing above. Although, I couldn't tell you what I'm doing to prevent further loss... Knock on wood that I won't lose any to this affliction.
Martin Motes was here for our MOS meeting and I got a chance to sit down and speak with him in detail about deflasking and growing seedlings. He made several very interesting comments and helpful tips for growing.
First: The plants should never remain in the flask longer than 4 months. Either re-plate or de-flask for planting. He said any longer and the media sugars are no longer effective.
Second: The plants are not photosynthesizing so there is no need to put them anywhere near a bright light source while in flask. Just keep them inside at a normal temps on your kitchen counter (for a hobby flasker).
Third: When removed from flask, it is very important to let the plants get ready to photosynthesize. To do this, thoroughly rinse the plants (do not use any chemicals - very important). Then lay the plants on a plate with a paper towel or on burlap (his greenhouse uses burlap). Do NOT water for 12-24 hours. This hardens off the plant roots and prepares them (clarify-the plant leaves) to photosynthesize (remember-most are epiphytic).
Fourth: Start watering directly on the burlap (no medium). I watered mine on the paper towel, then I moved mine to compots due to space constraints.
Of course the humidity must be maintained, but the key is to get the orchid from sugar processing in the roots to photosynthesis.
So, here are pictures of 3 Cattleya species using his recommendations and steps (w/o the burlap). Note: I still sterilized my moss by pressure cooking. No chemicals.
These were received in baggies from Meyers last Saturday. Hardened off for 24 hours (no water), then misted once a day on a paper towel for 6 days with low light, and finally potted them to compots today.
Martin said it is critical to harden the roots immediately after the clean rinse from the flask. He said if you plop them into compots or small pots immediately, there is more chance for mold and rot. He said that is one reason why people tend to wash them with fungicide. He said it is not necessary if you harden.
Of course, he also said that it is critical to have a good sterile flask first.
Here are my pictures. It will be interesting to see if I get a better survival rate. He said I should have an increase.
Last edited by shadytrake; 08-11-2013 at 11:33 PM..
A question for experienced seedling growers: when you populate your compots, do you select seedlings of about the same size, or do you mix strong growers with the runts? I mixed them up, but then I saw Orchideya's beautiful year-old compots on ebay, with all the plants within millimetres of each other, and I just wondered whether mixing up the sizes was a good idea. It was certainly convenient for me.
I guess I should have asked this a month ago.
Hi Al,
I mixed my most recent ones together (mainly due to space issues). Plus I wanted to try this new way of hardening off the roots.
Most of my Phals are individually potted because they grow better when they don't compete. I learned this from the local Phal expert. The problem is that they take up a lot of space.
Thanks Melissa. I wish I had this information six weeks ago!
Hardening off the roots makes perfect sense - I was very apprehensive about just taking the plants out of the flasks and into sphagnum. I actually expected most of the original roots to die off; my hope was that new roots would form before the original ones stopped feeding the plants.
In most of my plants with root rot (only about 5% of the population), new roots have already started to form, so I'm not concerned if the old ones die off. In some of the weakest plants, the roots rotted away before new ones came out, so I lost a few really small plants. Also, this rot problem has affected only 4 of my 27 compots, and in those 4 it is quite prevalent, affecting about 1/3 of the plants. I wonder what contaminant I introduced into those compots, and what I did right with all the others.
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