Divisions

[Brock]

Hello, I have a lot of questions about divisions and cloning. If I have a very mature plant and divide each psuedo bulb, will each bulb grow new plants? I thought with mericloning you can only do it with new growth. Is there any expert advice on mericloning?

[Ray]

Clusters of growths are colonies that share resources. Dividing them decreases the sharing opportunity and storage capacity. Older pseudobulbs may not have the stored resources to successfully initiate new growths.

The rule-of-thumb is that division should be a minimum of two old growths plus one new one, but with a little bit of "coaxing", via treatments such as Kelpak, it is possible that dormant "eyes" can lead to new growths.

[tmoney]

not too successful with divisions ourselves, we have decided that the advice online should be followed! hahah, but the advice is different for different genera. we lost some cattleyas because we only had 2 p-bulbs per division. a couple that we made with 2 p-bulbs did survive but it took a couple years to recover. so LOTS of bulbs in a division of cattleya. meanwhile, catasetums can be encouraged to grow new growths from a single bulb rested on its side in moss. meanwhile, we have had a couple division of only a single p-bulb live and grow on but that was with a brassidium.

so, what kind of plants are you trying to divide?! the more bulbs, the better the recovery it seems.

[Brock]

Thanks for the help I divided a cattleya. Potted a tiny piece with a few bulbs so I could divide it. Put another bigger piece on a tree. I have a few catasetums that are in terrible shape. I wanted to divide them once I get them too bloom again. I've seen stem segments cut but I'm not sure if that's mainly phalaenopsis. I've seen pieces of new growth bulbs turn into plants I think that's how you get mericlones. I'm curious if you can put node segments in moss to get new plants with any species. I think some orchids have Male and female flowers.used to be into orchids had a lot ot now I've started again. If I cut a cattleya stem in bloom or catasetum put it in moss would it just die? I imagine plants with psuedo bulbs wouldn't put out new roots from a stem cutting. I think the new bulbs are cut into pieces to make mericlones. With a catasetum, it grows flowers then turns into a bulb. If I'm quartering a catasetum for clones when would I quarter it? I have a catasetum it was neglected. It has corkscrew new growths. I'm trying to get pictures uploaded. The one new growth looks like a new growth is going to form maybe it's just a spot where it will put out roots. It looks like the start of a new plant or bulb. I need to brush up on the correct terms. I've never seen anything like it. Of the tree catasetums it's the only one that's bulbs haven't almost completely shriveled. Do I need to upload pictures with a computer. I used Flickr and dropbox still trying.

[Roberta]

Don't be in a rush to carve up your plants! Most orchids that have pseudobulbs, need to have at least 3 bulbs to a division, more is better. It is better to have one strong plant instead of a bunch of weak ones. Mericloning is much more complex than you indicate - it involves retrieval of growth-point tissue, and then a delicate laboratory operation under sterile conditions. In most cases you can't propagate an orchid from cuttings. They don't develop roots from a cutting the way ivy or aroids or African violets do. You also don't have Catasetums right... In the fall the leafed pseudobulbs drop their leaves, and go dormant, during which time they need no water. Then in the spring, new pseudobulbs (and a new roots system) develop, no water until they are well developed. (Set the Catasetinae sub-forum for discussion) A Catasetum can boom (and depending on the plant, can be early while it is still developing, mid-season, or end of season, sometimes on bare pseudobulbs. Any given plant can bloom male or female, sometimes both. And do it differently the next year.

I suggest that you learn how to grow the various orchid types well before you start trying to divide them or do any other propagation. Once you understand their growth patterns (and have big, healthy plants) you will be in a position to understand how to make thriving divisions.

[Brock]

Thank you. I was caring for these catasetums a few years ago and they were all plump and blooming. I was really just making a post because I needed to make five to post a picture. The cattleya I already separated. My brother took some loose psuedo bulbs from a giant plant with hundreds of flowers. I put one in a pot with the intention of making more. The catasetums I have are all hybrids. Now the new psuedo bulb starts out as a leaves hopefully blooms then turns into new psuedo bulb after it goes dormant I guess it's a growing pseudo bulb the whole time. I could be mistaken but I think the black witchcraft has male and female flowers I could be getting it mixed up. I thought any orchid that has male and female flowers has them on the same plant unlike a lot of other plants that male female or hermaphrodite. I just hope to grow some healthy plants. Was curious if one old psuedo bulb would put out new growth I guess anything is possible. When you do mericlone what stage would you try. As soon as the new growth starts really just making a post thanks for all the help.

[Roberta]

You have 15 posts, so should have no problem uploading photos. You can click Go Advanced from the Quick Reply box, then scroll down a little more to Manage Attachments, You'll get a pop-up (make sure pop-ups are enabled for this site in your browser) . Then you can browse on your computer for the file(s), click the Upload button after you have selected all the picture files (up to 10). Then when you Submit Reply they should be there.

---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 PM ----------

Most orchid flowers have both make and female parts. Catasetums and Cycnoches do produce flowers that are either male or female - but the same plant can do do either one, unlike fruit trees that have definite genders (In general, more light and more fertilizer tends to improve the odds of getting females, lower light - but still bright and maybe a little less fertilizer pushes the odds toward males. But these variations in conditions only shift the statistics, nothing certain. Other genera in the Catasetinae group have flowers more like the rest of the orchids, with both male and female parts on the same flower. (Usually the case for the complex intergeneric hybrids) Think of the confusion that this habit caused among botanists who first discovered these... they describe a flower, next year they get one that looks totally different from the same plant.

You should do some reading on the mericlone process. Identifying the proper tissue for the "surgery" is a definite art, different for different orchid types, and the processing after is also quite complex.

[Brock]

Thank you. I wasn't sure if the same plant could bloom male flowers then female the next season. I'll read about cloning orchids.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Brock

Thank you. I wasn't sure if the same plant could bloom male flowers then female the next season. .

They can do the switch during the same season too, a strong plant can bloom more than once. I have some that even occasionally produce both sexes of flowers on the same inflorescence - like this Catasetum expansum, http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Cata...ansum%20MF.jpg

[Fairorchids]

While a Cattleya with 6-8 PBs is blooming size, and usually will bloom, it is by no means a mature specimen size plant. You will get far more production out of a 15-20 PB plant, than you will from 4 individual plants with 4-5 PBs each.

Having said this, on occasion things go wrong while you are repotting. A few years ago, I was dividing C. Nancy Off 'Linwood', intending to create several divisions with a minimum of 6-8 PBs each. In twisting and turning the plant, I managed to break off 2 single, but large, PBs (each with minimal roots). I put the two singles into plastic pots with spaghnum, and placed them in a shady spot They both produced a new growth about 2/3 of the size of the single PB, but still large enough that both bloomed! I consider this the exception that 'proves' the rule, you should never intentionally produce single bulb divisions.

A more common situation was when a friend gave me a single PB division of Guarianthe skinneri 'Debbie' FCC/AOS (also broken off by mistake). With the same treatment it also produced a growth, but it was tiny (the PB was about 3/4" tall). Eventually it grew to BS, but it took about 5 years to bloom.