Sowing Thelymitra pauciflora seeds.
 

I thought I’d post this to get a timeline of how long it takes to propagate Thelymitra pauciflora from seed.

For anyone who’s trying to sow orchid seeds and do not know what they actually look like, the attached picture should give you an idea.

The black stuff are the seeds. They are tiny little black specks. If there were any doubts as to whether the black stuff are seeds or dirt, I took a photo of them at 200x magnification (I used a jeweler’s loupe at 25x magnification and I used the iPhone’s camera at 8x magnification). As you all can see, they’re orchid seeds! One seed is apparently approximately 50 microns long and about 30 microns in diameter!

Seed pods are about 1.5 cm long.

I am using a 25 micron filter bag to store the seeds and the seed pods until they’re ready to be sent to the lab.

Seeds and seed pod are courtesy of Roberta! Thank you!

How do you sterilize your seeds before sowing?

I don’t do the sowing, but if I did…

10% bleach solution (bleach + water) with seeds left in on my watch for approximately 5 - 10 minutes. My watch because sometimes 10% bleach solution is too much and can kill some species if left too long. You have to develop a specific protocol if you haven’t done so already.