I have returned from my hiatus with some propagation orchid news.
To recap: I cross pollinated one of my NoID orange Phalaenopsis orchids with pollen from a NoID phalaenopsis purple orchid to make a seed pod. The seed pod developed over a period of 4-6 months and then I will plated the seeds on agar. After 8-10 months (today) in the flask I deflasked the orchids into little pots to grow into mature plants.
I never got a chance to make replate media (been so busy) so these little orchids might have a tough time taking off.
Here is what my flasks look like today, 4/12/15. These flasks will need to be deflasked or replated soon. Lots of healthy roots growing and they look a bit crowded.
A mix of different sizes in this jar.
I will have lots of Phalaenopsis orchids when I deflask all of these lol.
These orchids are still small and would benefit from replate media.
And now we come to the contaminated flasks (2 out of 8). White = mold. This mold randomly sprung up over the last three days. Not sure how it got there, but it happened in two jars at the same time.
This is a second contaminated flask, so these orchids will need to be deflasked before the mold takes over them and suffocates the small plants.
These seedlings still have some moldy agar on their roots.
All the agar has been washed off of the roots.
The biggest one:
The first few Phalaenopais orchids have been deflasked and potted.
Deflasking my Phalaenopsis orchid jars that I propagated last August! Two of the 8 flasks suddenly became contaminated so it was time to move the seedlings out of the flasks.
Little orchids all potted up! I think not many of these will survive since they are so small unfortunately.
I still have six more flasks with Phalaenopsis, and two flasks with Vanda babies.