Bletilla striata seed sowing- El Naturel

[Call_Me_Bob]

This year my Bletilla striata v. alba did wonderfully so I decided to self it. I ended up with three beautiful pods. Well since I only need about 15 million seeds, I figured that I could experiment with the other 5 millions. So I sprinkled them into the Habenaria repens terrarium I set up, and forgot about them. You can see more about the details of the setup here, Habenaria repens mini terrarium setup

Anyways fast forward to a few days ago and I notices some odd green things, turns out that the seed took and I have protocorms! Take a look!!


DSC_0043.jpg by orchidman10, on Flickr


DSC_0042.jpg by orchidman10, on Flickr

[vjo]

That is soooo cool Quay!! What are you going to do with all of them? I think your little bowl will be too small...lol...Jean

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by vjo

That is soooo cool Quay!! What are you going to do with all of them? I think your little bowl will be too small...lol...Jean

You know, I hadn't really thought about They need cold winters once they get a little bigger for them to thrive, so once they get big enough to handle, I'll remove them and put them in the garden with the big boys. That's assuming they grow and don't die.

[ron-in-norcal]

I hope they work well for you. That should make quite a garden display!

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by ron-in-norcal

I hope they work well for you. That should make quite a garden display!

Thanks, me too! The ones in my garden right now look great, so I hope I can add these soon!

[ron-in-norcal]

I found they were martyrs to snails in my northern California garden, so I always had to put out the organic bait to get them to grow and bloom without turning into snail food.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by ron-in-norcal

I found they were martyrs to snails in my northern California garden, so I always had to put out the organic bait to get them to grow and bloom without turning into snail food.

That's unfortunate! I don't have any snail problems.

[ron-in-norcal]

They are a nightmare pest, along with the pocket gophers we had. If not for those two things, growing plants in northern California would be paradise. Hope you never have to deal with them. The ones in California are the European brown snails originally brought over for escargot, and escaped. Voracious appetites.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by ron-in-norcal

They are a nightmare pest, along with the pocket gophers we had. If not for those two things, growing plants in northern California would be paradise. Hope you never have to deal with them. The ones in California are the European brown snails originally brought over for escargot, and escaped. Voracious appetites.

at work sometimes we have to take care of snail problems. But they are really just slugs, no shells

[epiphyte78]

Very cool! This is the second time I've heard about orchid seeds germinating in a terrarium. Here's the first...Orchid seedlings in my vivaria.

So are you going to try it with different species?

Last week I actually sowed quite a few different seeds in my terrarium. Not sure why I hadn't tried doing it sooner!