Research project
 

I am a college student and I just got the thumbs up from a prospective faculty mentor to go ahead and do an informal research project regarding orchid propagation next semester! Now all I have to do is apply for the funding...and look up information!

I'm looking mostly at seeing what kinds of culture mediums will work best at growing orchids from seed (varieties without endosperm only) as well as evaluating methods to grow keikis on phals.

What methods/culture mediums have you heard of/used for seed germination? Which methods/products do you know of to induce keiki formation in phals?

What species do you know of that have a relatively high germination rate and/or take the shortest amount of time to germinate (I only have about 4 months to do the whole project).

Please tell me what has worked for you or post links.

Thank you so much!
Your help is greatly appreciated.

Sounds like a good project. Micropropagation is fun.

There are some standard media that are readily available. Musharigie and Skoog (probably misspelled) developed a nutrient media a while back that has become a base formula for many. There are variation from MS media like the addition of banana. It's sometimes referred to as P668, or with banana as P669. This can be good for a variety of robust species, or used at a reduced strength for Phals. There are others as well, I suggest going with a second, dissimilar formula so that if something fails to grow on one, it is more likely to survive on the other. Western (Kevin Western?) media is a good second.

As for seed, sometimes It's a crap shoot. Speed of growth can vary. All I can sat there is start with the freshest seed you can. I can help you there but it may not be what you're looking for.

Inducing keikis via cultural means is a topic that you may find good papers on. Using paste or gel can cause some issues. Your best bet would be to look at making stem props. It's basically inducing keikis, but as an explant in a test tube with more consistent amounts of available growth hormones.