I'm thinking of creating another Weed Orchid

[voyager]

Originally Posted by Stray59

Fascinating post! Living in the Midwest, it blows my mind that you can broadcast orchids seeds in your own yard and have them survive - I am green with envy! Really, pea-green, perhaps chartreuse even....LOL. How cool. Of course I knew they did this in the wild, and you live in their natural environs, but I hadn't thought you could naturalize them is such a manner.
Which brings me to my question. I know about the symbiotic need for the fungus to supply the nutrients to the seeds for success. Could you take a live root from a mature plant and pulverize it, smearing the resultant gunk on a tree - wouldn't you be "seeding" that area with the needed fungus starter? Or would the rotting material of the root set up a harmful fungus/bacteria?
Just a thought......

I'm not very knowledgeable about the symbiotic fungi that associate with the orchids and help with their growth.
But, I would assume that there are probably various types specific to a variety of areas and climates.
It is possible that they could be transported to other locations with different conditions. Because of the orchids being able to reproduce here, there is little doubt that the mycorrhizal type fungi do exist here, and are ubiquitous.

We may find out if the fungi can be transplanted.
I "re-homed" 3 of my storm disrupted weed Vandas with a forum member on the mainland.
Part of his interest in them was the possibility of gaining the mycorrhizal fungi in their roots.

My guess is that you would not need to masticate and spread the roots around.
I would think that the fungi would simply propagate out of the roots of the transplanted plant if they found satisfactory conditions.

---------- Post added at 07:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

Originally Posted by RosieC

Wow, what a great place to live where they can grow wild like that.

After over 30 years in Alaska, and growing orchids in my living room for 10 of those years:

I'm now like a kid with a new toy.
I can hardly believe it is so easy to grow them as it is here.

This photo is of the South and Southwest windows of my living room back in Alaska. There was also a Northwest window just like the one on the right. It is about 10am and the sun has just come up. The pots on the the floor on the left are a Phaius, an Arundina [Bamboo Orchid] and a tomato plant brought in just before the first killing frost.
Phaius' and Arundinas are now my major weed orchids.

[epiphyte78]

Here's my method...

First I harvest the pods just before they split. This can be tricky but eventually you get pretty good at eyeballing pods that are ripe enough to harvest. For example, sometimes they'll start turning yellow.

I place the pods in an open tupperware container in my garage. The goal is to allow them to ripen all the way without them molding. So each day I try and move them around a bit.

Once the pod is sufficiently ripe... I'll scrape the seeds out into another tupperware where I store the seeds. I keep this tupperware closed.

Every once in a while, when I have enough seeds, I'll sow around 20% of them. The point of sowing some, rather than all, of them is because conditions at a later date might be more suitable for the seeds to germinate. Many orchids themselves do the same thing because their pods ripen/open at different times. Plus, a pod doesn't release all its seeds at once. In other words... some orchids are especially careful to hedge their bets.

Before I sow the seeds... I soak them first for a couple of days. I think it's more effective to disseminate wet seeds. With dry seeds... if there's the slightest breeze then most of them will fly off and end up on the ground. But it's definitely not a walk in the park to disseminate wet seeds.

I really haven't found a great technique for sowing the seeds. Usually I try and carefully pour the seed "soup" onto branches. If the branch isn't very thick... or it's too vertical... then too much of the seed soup just drips off of the branch. Last time I tried using an eye dropper... but it was too small. It took forever and it kept clogging. Next time I'd like to try using a horse syringe.

Here's one technique that was shared in this thread...

Originally Posted by glengary54

This all has brought to mind a friend in S America who is attempting to re-establish some species in the jungles around where he lives.

He mixes a thin slurry of water, orchid seeds, ground up moss and lichens from the trees in the jugle and some ground up orchid roots and sprays it on the trees using kids super soaker water guns that I sent him about five years ago. When he first told me what he was doing he was painting the slurry on with a paint brush and wasn't having much success. Since he started using the water cannon and is able to shoot higher up in the trees, he has had success with several species of Catlleyas, Catasetum and several other genera.

I was toying with the idea myself, here in Central Florida, the last two winters have been extremely hard on the local Enc tampensis populations. I would really like to see my Orchid Society take on a Community Project to help re-establish the colonies that were lost and to spread them all over the City where I live. It seeems like it would be a cinch doing it with a water cannon

[PaphLover]

This thread is fascinating and the flowers are absolutely gorgeous! Love their long 'horns'.

What a great place to live and experiment.

So, did any of the seeds take root?

[voyager]

Originally Posted by PaphLover

This thread is fascinating and the flowers are absolutely gorgeous! Love their long 'horns'.

What a great place to live and experiment.

So, did any of the seeds take root?

I assume you are referring to the Den. Samurai antelope hybrid.
They are established in 4 locations around our lot.
They have produced probably about a dozen seed pods total between them, only a few have yet to ripen.
It will probably be at least a couple of years before I begin to see signs of them propagating.
Maybe even longer because they'll be well camouflaged until they gain some size and can be seen from the ground.
Looking for the ones I've mounted, the ones that were already seeded in, and then the ones that are starting from the ones I've brought in, is like a very difficult Easter Egg Hunt.
I may find a few.
But, I don't think I'll find them all.