disa flask

[Andrew]

I pretty much do what is described on the Western Orchids site (scroll about 3/4 down the page). I don't use a lengthy, hardening off period and I find it's better to get the seedlings into 'mature plant' conditions as soon as possible or you start to run into problems with fungus. Sometimes this causes the leaves to collapse as seedlings in flask don't have a think cuticle layer on their leaves to prevent water loss but new, hardened leaves quickly grow from the centre of the rosettes and the plants barely skip a beat. I'd advise against letting any seedlings flower in their first year as they often don't have enough reserves left to produce a new tuber and you end up losing the plant.