A sowings story!
 

Hello! I'm Giuseppe, I'm from Italy :) I've got registered to this forum time ago, but I don't hang out a lot.
Now I'm returned, because I want to show you the "story" of my sowings, just beginned!
In April 2014 I decide to pollinate a flower of a white hybrid Phalaenopsis.
The flower first wilted, than it started to grew up a fruit (is there a technical name to definite orchids fruit in english?), and in the next months the fruit continued growing
this was it in September 2014
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc17f38df.jpg
But after a few time, I realized that... it wasn't growing anymore!
In fact, this was it in December, it was like the same
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps949112f8.jpg
in the last 3 months it also don't grow, so I was a bit worried, but on 26 March, the fruit suddently turned yellow and opened it self!
So in the last day I've took all the indispensable for the sowing, and I follow the "recipe" founded on a italian forum to preparing the nourishing substratum:
water, agar, sugar, fertilizer and active carbon.
Two days ago I prepared it, I poured it in the glass can and I sterilised it.
So yesterday, after almost a year from pollinating, I seminated my phalaenopsis seeds!
But because the fruit opened it self, it will probably got contaminated, so after sowing I sterilised the seeds putting a bleach tampon under the can's lid for 3 hours (method tried out on an italian forum), than I removed the tampon and close the can definitively. (It's the method explained here by Roby http://www.orchidboard.com/community...seedlings.html but he explained this method also in a italian forum :) )
Now, I only have to wait :)
I'll soon post some picture :D
But I haven't finished yet! In March I've pollinated another hybrid Phalaenopsis and a Dendrobium lindley, and I will soon pollinate a P. equestris and other hybrid!
I will soon update! :D
Thanks for reading!

This is one of the 14 jar that I sowed! :D
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps7t3qcsx3.jpg

These are the Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium lindleyi fruits!
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...psrqbwqrn5.jpg
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...pssdikcfko.jpg

what media mix did you use for the mother flask?

Hi Romeomffn, I made the media with:
1 liter of demineralized water
8 g of Agar Agar
20 g of sugar
1 g of active carbon
1,5 g of fertilizer (I don't know the exactly dose of NPK)

Keep us looped in on developments. I love following how these grow from seeds to plants.

Sure!! I'll update soon! :D

besides, I've just tried to pollinate a Phalaenopsis with a Phal Dendrobium!!

oh dear, obviously in the medium I putted also sugar! I add it in the list!

Have done any sowing myself but I have pollinated many different plants, more have failed than survived but those that have I sent to a lab or I'm still watching.

Nice job taking this on yourself, and so young. :) I look forward to seeing your progress. By the way, I do believe the official name is 'capsule' though many of us here refer to them as pods.

Thanks a lot, lotis :D
Actually, also in italian the official name of the fruit is "capsula" (capsule) but we often call them "baccelli" who means "pods"! :)

A question: in the USA, labs who can sow your orchid seeds are so common? I think that here in Italy it's very difficoult to find one...

Hello! Just checking in on your progress... how are things going?

Hello everyone!! :D I'm a bit worried, after more than a month there aren't any protorcorms... :dunno:

I'm losing hope, after almost three months, there are no progress :( what do you think?

That sounds a bit long, but I've read that it can take months now and then.

However, when I flasked NOID phal seeds it only took a couple of weeks (or was it close to a month?) before the protocorms started to turn green in the flasks.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...wing-lazy.html

Giuseppe, don't give up at all yet. Phals can take 4 to 6 weeks before you see signs of germination. Now since you pollinated it with a different type of orchid it will take longer. You can find some seeds can take up to 1 year to germinate from seeds. So just keep them under the light as long as there is no signs of contamination and be patient.

Thanks a lot everyone! You gave me some hope, I'de really need it! :D So I still wait and hope I can tell you soon that the seeds are germinating :)
However, I pollineted two plant of the same type, a hyrid Phal with another hybrid Phal

Hey Giuseppe, sorry I didn't reply sooner about labs. I'm still pretty new to this all myself so I'm not sure I'd say labs are really common in the US. However I also don't know that they're necessarily rare. I heard of the lab I use from here and a general internet search. I think it would be great fun to try it myself one day but at the moment it's easier to send them off.

Sorry to hear you haven't seen any progress yet, I know how you feel. My first couple pods I sent out were questionable from the start b/c the spikes were dying so I just cut them off, contacted the lab, and took my chances sending them. That said neither of them had germinated the last time I checked in - still waiting for a response on a third as we speak. The guy told me however that he keeps them for a year before he gives up completely, so maybe you can do the same...? Until then keep trying!

Good luck, I hope you see some progress. Btw, how are your other pods coming along? I've got a couple I'm watching myself, and one that dehisced (opened) after only 4 1/2 months.

Thanks for answer, lotis! :)
The other pods looks their still growing, I hope that they'll take less time than the first one to open :whistling

I'm back with important updates! :D
Sadly, the seeds never germinate. Probably, they weren't alive. They were brown. One month ago, another pod opened himself, and the seeds were white, not brown! So I think that the first seeds were not alive.
So, today, I decided to sow some new seeds in the same flask that i used for the first sowing.
I sown the seeds of the pod that in opened one month ago (a NOID Phal pod), and the seeds of two anoter pods, that were still green on the plants: a Dendrobium lindleyi pod, and a pod of a NOID Phalaenopsis crossed with a Phalaenopsis equestris! :D
This time the seeds looks alive. No I only have to wait. Even if I'm only afraid of possible contaminations...

I'll update you! :D

I am so glad you did not give up and tried again. Different orchids have different color or shades of seeds. They can be white tan gray and other shades also. So just because they don't look white don't think that they may not be good. Try them out. Also I hope you cleaned your jars before putting new seeds inside the old jars. As well as putting in new substrate. Keep us all updated when you can.

Giuseppe, I have flasked my own Cattleya seed using Roby's method an had germination in under 2 months. I have also sent Cattleya seed to a lab for flasking, finally got germination after 10 months (I came close to giving up).

My message is to be patient, sometimes orchid germination takes a very long time.

Thanks a lot everyone! :) Well, if the first seeds are actually alive, they're still into the jar, so they can still germinate, because I didn't changed the substrate, I only cleaned and sterilized the external part of the jar, than I opened it and I sown... What I did I'ts a bit dangerous, but lets call it an "experiment" :)

After some days to the sowing, in two jar started to grow some few mildew, I eliminated them sterilizing whit some few drop of hydrogen peroxide and then removing the mildew spots with the tweezers, after two days in one of the jar there was alredy a bigger mildew spot, so I've alredy removed it using more hydrogen peroxide :) Now I think it would never re-form :D

However, the seeds looks like they're becoming green! :D

Ok, maybe hydrogen peroxide is not much good to kill the mildew! :shock: today, in both jars there were a lot of new spots of mildew! :shock:
So I alredy used roby's gaseous sterilization method, I put a pad soaked with bleach for two hours in both jars, and after a few, the mildew started changing color from blue to brown. No I think that I killed it definitively :evil:

According to roby's information, seeds won't die until 4 hours of exposure at bleach fumes, so I think that now seeds could germinate without problems :D

This is my experience too. I manage to successfully sow seeds using hydrogen peroxide to keep the flasks clean, but if mold forms at some point during the flasking period, the hydrogen peroxide won't stop it from developing further.

This is also my main challenge with replating... I'm reasonably successful with seeding, but struggle to maintain a sterile environment if I'm forced to open the flasks at some point.

Ok, some other jars looks contaminated (in a different way compared to the firts) but now I see the first protocorms in some jars!

Guiseppe,

When you have contamination, you do not have to open the flask. Get hold of a magnifying glass (or the lens from an old pair of binoculars), take the flask outside on a sunny day, and use the lense to concentrate the sun beams onto the spot with mold or bacteria.

This will burn away the problem (and disinfect the spot) through the wall of the flask.

Maybe the seeds weren't able to germinate?? It looks like you crossed a Dendrobium with a Phalaenopsis. Dendrobiums are pretty different since they are sympodial and Phalaenopsis are actually monopodial. Maybe the DNA was too different? Or maybe the recipe doesn't work on these seeds.

Hey there, I'm alive! I'm here for some updates :)

No, I didn't crossed Dendrobium and Phalaenopsis, I've pollinated a D. lindleyi and some different Phalaenopsis commercial hybrid flowers. The only crossing is a phal flower pollinated with P. equestris!

By the way, this is the situation now: some jars had been contaminated, in others it isn't born anything. Only in 5 jars some seeds have germinated, and most are D. lindleyi
In one jar it is born only one Phalaenopsis!
However, I'm happy for this little result :biggrin:

P.S. in the hydrogen peroxide-treated jars I've killed the mildews, but sadly I've killed also the seeds. They didn't germinated.