I'm so excited! my friend gave me a seed pod but I have no idea what to do!
 

the title essentially says it all, a friend of mine has a greenhouse and she picked off this orchid pod and gave it too much as she knows I love orchids and would appreciate any and all advise you can provide me on how to grow them!!!

The general way of growing the seeds inside the pod requires a sterile bacteria/fungus-free environment and conditions. Youtube has videos showing how to set things up, which generally requires chemical cleaning solutions, and a bunch of equipment.

I have heard of at least one person using a splurge gun or something, with some kind of water and orchid seed solution, and they used the splurge gun to spray the seeds onto sides of trees, and at least some seeds managed to grow. The chance of success for this splurge method obviously depends on the environment (humidity etc). But I guess it's all fair ------ because orchids in nature don't grow via the 'lab' method.

super cool! i suggest you take a look at the other threads in this subforum regarding flasking information.

be warned that it's a veeeeery long/difficult process (and even after deflasking, it can be years before they flower, plus the quality of the seedlings may not match the original parents), and it's probably more worth your time just to grab a seedling (which are still pretty hard to grow, if just deflasked). that's not to discourage you - flasking is a very interesting process and i'm sure it's rewarding to see the seedlings finally flower.

having never done flasking myself (maybe i should just give it a try for fun right :P), i can't give you much advice, but i can tell you that there ARE flasking services offered by some companies, which might give you better germination/survival rates. for now, browse through the older threads (especially the stickies), visit some informational websites, and maybe wait for someone more experienced than me to reply (lol). :)

just curious: what are the parents of this pod?

---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 PM ----------

southpark - lol, i've never heard that method being called the splurge method. that's hilarious!

i think epiphyte78 made a thread several years back where he sowed seeds onto the trunk of a tree (in hot, dry Socal!! :shock:) and they germinated. of course, he probably misted them a lot. he found that the seeds that had germinated near the roots of other orchids already mounted on the tree grew better, probably due to mycorrhizal fungi.

c - if you've never seen orchid seeds before, they're tiny, like specks of dust. they don't have any endosperm (the nutrients that most seeds rely on during the germination phase), so they form relationships with certain species of fungi (collectively known as mycorrhizal fungi), which allows them to access nutrients before they grow their own roots and leaves. over the course of the orchid's life, it will retain some fungal partners and form new relationships with other species of fungi. that's in nature of course. in the lab, we provide a nutrient medium to help them grow.

Good memory neophyte! That's probably where I read it from ----- one of those online links! Thanks for mentioning that. That definitely draws attention. I heard about the necessary symbiosis relation for those tiny orchid organisms to get food for growing. Quite amazing and interesting. Will have to tinker and experiment one day, and mix a few things together like that.

I wonder if the same liquid mix solution could be applied to something like a mix of scoria and spaghnum. Keeping adequate air circulation and humidity. I guess it doesn't hurt to try. But I think I'd try even if it hurt hahaha.

Thank you all for the replies! I very much so appreciate it! I will get back to you all as soon as I can!

I've been playing around with non-invitro germination of orchid seeds with mild success with Gongora and now Sobralia sp. My method has been to collect live roots from the plant that the seed pod came from as a source of the symbiotic fungi, chop them up finely and throw them in a blender with water, a bit of molasses and seaweed fertilizer as nutrients for the fungus. Strain the liquid and spray it over the areas where you plan to put the seeds to inoculate them. I've done this on branches and and prepared media and both seem to work, I tried media sterilization and honestly seemed to make little difference. When the seed pod starts to split open I found that a tiny paint brush is useful in transferring a small amount of seeds, to the areas you inoculated.
This all depends of course on the mother plant having the mycorrhizal fungi present in it's roots. If the mother plant was germinated in a test tube, and you're in an area not native to the orchid, there's a good chance this won't work. I'm not sure how specific the fungi are to each species, but I have noticed that often times I'll get germination on the areas near the base of orchids of the same genera.
Even with wild collected orchids and a tropical climate, success is unreliable. So take this with a grain of salt.

Sounds at least workable - at least sometimes. I'm also guessing that's why orchid pods contains millions or seeds ----- to increase their chances of getting some to make it.

I like this idea of live root usage. I'd probably just add a bit extra, like some auxin solution into the mix too. I will make use of your method and try it out sometime!

Hi SouthPark,

"... I'd probably just add a bit extra, like some auxin solution ..."

As you probably know Auxins promote root growth while Cytokinins promote leaf growth. Things like Keiki promoting chemicals (eg KeikiGrow in Australia) use Cytokinins to promote dormant bud development (so they initially get leaves to form first). And, from personal experience, these (Cytokinins) work. I've used Auxins to promote dormant bud development and failed. Not sure how these growth regulators should be applied to promote germination.

dnatural ..... thanks for the tips about not recommending auxin. I will skip the auxin idea. I'll take the keikigrow path that you mentioned instead. Thanks again!