Replate Medium Question
 

I have some orchids coming to me that will need to be replated. (They are Phaleanopsis ) What type of Replate Medium should I be using on the replate? Will the same type of replate medium work on Cattleya orchids seedlings that are germinating now. The Catts were sown in P668.

Cntry, I recently had questions on replating and size of protocorms. If you check out this link I'm pretty sure you'll find information that will be useful to you.

Not sure on the Cattleya question though.

Big Leaf Orchid forum

Hopes that answers most of your questions. :)


Judi

Judi that's funny I was just there and placed a comment there to. Just read what you had asked and Ben and Rob answered for you. My questions was would P748 work find if I omit the banana because it already has it in and add the potato, sugar, agar, distilled water would it be the same as the recipe they are using .

I also wanted to know if the plastic containers that you get salads and soups in the grocery store would work for this. They have the PP symbol on the bottom of the containers. I don't know if they would melt in a pressure cooker. I am not sure how to sterilize them correctly. They are also not vented. But that would be easy to do using the band aid method on each side.

The P748 replate media already has banana, sugar, agar so all you would need to add to make it somewhat similar to their recipe would be potatoe.

I say somewhat because the P748 formula has different amounts of banana and sugar. On the banana 30gr compared to 25gr and on the sugar 20 gr compared to 5gr. Ben and Robs' formula uses the lesser amount of each. Not sure how much of a difference the higher quantities of those would affect the growing seedlings so I guess you'd best wait for them to answer over on BLO.

About the plastic container, they may or may not work depending on how thick or rigid they are. An easy way to tell would be to pop them into a pot of boiling water and if they melt or warp that way they'd be no good for using in a pressure cooker. Your dishwasher is another way to tell, if they warp in anyway in that their definitely not a good choice.


Judi

Judi I went ahead and made up the media using their recipe and also used the plastic containers I had my son bring me home. I know they were microwaveable but was not sure they could be autoclaved or could be used in pressure cooker.

It works as long as you don't seal the lid on them. Just sit it over the opening and once its finished processing push down the lid and then remove the container that is now sealed. Then seal around the lid and let cool down.

My new orchids from my friend will be here tomorrow so I didn't have time to just wait around and wonder I had to do it tonight. I figured even if they are in the recipe I did till I get some of the P668 they would survive and made another batch up.

I am learning as I go and having a lot of fun doing it. I will let you know what kind of reaction they have to my formula compared to the other recipe.

Are you going to vent your lids once you replate?

Sorry, I didn't see this till just now.

I'm using flasks that I had from previous purchases, some of the lids have vents, some don't. So I'll be using both kinds. I just made up the replate media today and will be waiting about a week to make sure all is well before I go ahead and use them.

Any update on the seedlings that you replated?


Judi

My Phals I have 6 left after replating them. With in 2 days I had contamination all over everything. I had to remove the Phals from the replate media and I put them into Peroxide before replating them as well as after I took them out of the jars. The 6 phals I have left are very small but they look ok. Now they are in Spag moss.

Oh, that's to bad about the contamination. Good that you were able to save some.

How did you sterilize the flasks?

I've been using the method Roby posted, so far, so good.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...seedlings.html


Judi

I used the pressure cooker. I also used the plastic containers. I think this had something to do with the contamination. My jars were all fine I did before that and I even have germination from some of the seeds I sown.

Shirley, I think the plastic containers may be the culpit to the contamination.

On 06/16 I made up my replate media using most of the regular flasks I had left. Since I have another pod developing, I figured I'd make up some more mother media while everything was already out but had to use some flasks that would be similar to the salad containers that you used.

The regular flasks are still ok but on the salad type ones I'm finding some contamination. I think this is largely due to having to push the top on as compared to screwing it on. Pushing it on may draw additional air into the container thus allowing bacteria in. I've decided not to use these again and instead go with either using regular flasks or some of the baby food jars I have. Won't be able to keep the protocorms/seedlings in as long, but I think they'll be less likely to contaminate.



Judi