Quest for easier to grow seeds for science project at a non-profit
 

Hi,

We are looking for seeds of any species of orchid that is easier(I have seen that easy doesn't appear to be an option) to grow from seed. And also hopefully does well with a tissue culture too. But right now we could settle for just easier to germinate.

We would be happy with species suggestions, good places to buy seeds, or buying from a member with a good reputation. We are also a non-profit so I believe any donations are tax deductible(we have no problem purchasing, just figured I would mention).

This would be for a longer project in our science committee. We would first want to see if we are able to successfully grow from seed and do tissue cultures as 2 separate projects. If we are successful we would teach classes on it in the future.

Backstory: I recently joined an educational non-profit organization, and I am in the science committee. Yesterday our head of the committee was mentioning that he really wanted to try a project of grow orchids from seeds then doing tissue cultures afterwards. He mentioned that he had bought seeds before and had no luck germinating them, and that he thought it was problems with the seeds he had purchased. I figured WTH I bet I can find some seeds... I found this forum and I think I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew and I have a million more questions for him about how he was trying to germinate the seeds. I see that germinating orchids doesn't seem to be easy... however we have access to a lot of the supplies necessary to undertake the process. there does seem to be a lot of good information on this forum though.

Thanks In Advance for any help, suggestions or advice.
:) :) :bowing :) :)

Given the length of time and technical difficulty to reliably grow orchids from seeds, I would spend my time on other endeavors that might be more productive.

** edited to remove contentious comment ** WR

I don't understand why you felt the need to respond with such a rude comment. I figured a community like this is supposed to encourage growth into a hobby instead of making rude comments to new members.

I work as a chemist and have much better things to do than work at McDonalds. And our head of committee in a semi conductor engineer.

I'm sorry you had that comment directed at you. A warning has been issued.

I haven't done any seed propagation myself, so can't help you there, sorry. Hopefully some other members can offer some suggestions.

Welcome to Orchidboard, and I’m sorry that you were apparently treated rudely. I see that whatever happened was taken care of.

About your questions, I wonder if orchids are the most appropriate plant for your project. Seed availability is one issue, and the time needed to germinate and obtain seedlings (many, many months) is another. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘first germinate and then do tissue culture’ . Forgive me if you knew this already (isn’t clear from your post), but orchid seed rarely germinates at all unless on a sterile, agar based media, and may explain the lack of germination from the earlier test? Or he may have ended up with fake orchid seed, which is quite common online…

If you really want to stick with orchids as a tissue culture project, why not consider things like stem propagation of Phalaenopsis spikes, or vanilla vines? You can easily obtain these plants from stores, Those would still be interesting tissue culture projects, and without the hassle finding seed each time you want to run the project.

Orchids were what my friend was wanting to work on. I did some reading on here before i posted but i think i might have got the tissue culture thing a little mixed up. I know he wanted to start from seeds and said something about a tissue culture.

I have banana plants and tissue cultures with banana plants are a bit different, so i think i may have incorrectly assumed TC in orchids were more similar to that. I did suggest working with bananas first since im already familiar with that community and bananas are generally hard to kill. (Though once bananas start growing they get huge.)

After that comment I don't want to say much about our non-profit now and dox myself or my organization. But we do have access to a small lab where we have projects and classes. He said that he already has the chemicals and agar. I sent him a few text after i realized seeds are so hard to come by, and we are supposed to talk more this weekend. I also bumped into a profile of his on a different orchid community so it looks like he got seeds from hobbyist before. So I'll have to ask further about that.

When i started digging i saw the thing with vanilla vines and i am actually really interested in that personally. I can at least use it for cooking.

But i will see when we talk later, he seems pretty set on the seeds.... Im going to guess because it's a challenge.

We normally do things like run simple PCR test, essential oil distillations, or electroplating. We are also planning a CRISPR project too.

Try epidendrum radicans seeds. They germinate readily. I am sorry for the response you got. That is not characteristic of that poster.... Or I hope any of us.

Do you have any smaller orchid businesses or Orchid Society near where you? Usually, there is someone who knows someone.....

I cannot personally help you but I wish you luck with your endeavor.

As others have mentioned, your facing several issues if you are aiming at doing seed. First is the difficulty in obtaining fresh seed. Because germinating seed is difficult, and the caring for seedlings until they are blooming size is generally very time consuming and labor intensive, few folks bother pollinating their flowers and allowing the pods to grow. (Depending on the type of orchid, pod development and maturation typically takes months or even a year+.) Then there is the additional wait time of years before any seedlings will have matured to where they can bloom. As a result, the majority of folks don't bother pollinating their plants and even if an outdoor plant does get pollinated by the local wildlife, the owner will snip the immature pod off rather than have the plant put energy into a pod that will never be used to begin with. Add to that, orchid seeds are minute and have a very short shelf life. (The seeds lack the stored energy reserves common with most seeds.) Do not waste your $ on buying any seeds from overseas. 99% of the time the seeds will be bogus or too old to be viable.

You really would be better off first doing tissue culture. While still quite involved and time consuming, "guinea pig" plants are cheaply and easily available. You could even get a phal or two from a BBS and pollinate the flowers to get your own seedpods. In the interim of waiting for pod maturation, you could work on the tissue culture angle.

I would also suggest, that before spending the time and $ on germinating orchid seeds, perhaps, after researching the methods you would need to employ, instead experiment on sharpening the needed skills by working with other seeds. Begonia or gesneriad seeds would be my suggestion. Not only are many of the plants cheap and easy enough to get, after pollinating you wouldn't have so nearly long a wait for the pods to ripen. Furthermore, though the seeds are generally very easy to germinate, they are -- like orchid seeds -- minute (and we are talking dust speck size). This would provide you practice working with teeny tiny seeds.


Don't get your hopes up on that front unless you have LOTS of space and are very patient. The unfortunate thing about vanilla is the vine must get quite large before it will bloom -- around 20ft long or more. In addition, if you were to grow the vine in your home or a greenhouse, you will likely need to hand pollinate the flowers in order to get a seed pod. Flowers are short lived only lasting a day or two, IIRC, so you'd also have to be very vigilant to get to the flowers in time.

In my own personal experience the seeds of the common reed-stem Epidendrums and Bletilla striata easily germinate. I just sow the seeds on top of some moist New Zealand Sphagnum moss in a zip lock bag that's by a bright window.

A couple months ago I started a thread on the topic... Orchids That Easily Grow From Seed and also in another forum... Reed-Stem Epidendrums, Bletilla striata, and...