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Originally Posted by bjmac
Can you explain the difference between clones and seed plants? Also are some plants cutting from the parent plant. And does any of this make any difference in the cost of the neofinetia?
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In Neos, there a number of different characteristics that are regularly heritable by seed. These include many leaf shape traits such as bean leaves, certain types of variegation such as Tora-fu and Chiri-fu, and flower color. Many varieties where these traits are the main characteristic will be regularly propagated by seed and sold under the same name as the parent given that the specimen carries the same essential characteristics as the parent.
There are some characteristics however that cannot be inherited via seed such as Fukurin and Nakafu variegation, and then there are varieties that are sterile or self sterile so cannot produce seed. These varieties can only be propagated via asexual means.
The most common way to propagate these plants that can't be propagated by seed is via division. A plant which has grown into a clump is divided and you create new specimens of the variety in that way. This is by far the most reliable way to propagate neos while still ensuring that the essential characteristics remain intact.
Another potential means to propagate certain varieties, especially the sterile ones would be through micropropagation, which many in the orchid world refer to as mericloning. This is the process used to attempt to create numerous genetically identical plants using a population of cells harvested from a plant. While this is a common practice for species such as Phalaenopsis, what I understand is that it has not yet been extensively researched or put into main stream practice for Neos. In addition, using micropropagation techniques does not guarantee that all of the resulting offspring will be genetically identical to the parent.
Beyond that too, there are some characteristics, such as Fukurin and Nakafu variegation that cannot be reliably propagated using micropropagation, and the only reliable way to propagate those is still only via division.
So, the difference between seed grown plants, divisions and micropropagated clones....
For most purposes, to absolutely ensure that you have the exact same characteristics in two plants, they will have to be divisions of each other. This is a slow way to propagate Neos, and because of that, plants that can only be propagated by division will usually be more expensive, or at least take a long time to come down in price. On the other hand, those varieties also tend to be much more consistent in its characteristics across all specimens of that variety.
There are many expensive varieties that can only be propagated by division. Higuma is one example. Higuma was discovered 131 years ago in 1887. There is record of when it was first divided and sold, which was in 1902, and the first division sold for 1000 yen at that time. It's difficult to translate that precisely into the value of money nowadays, but it had the purchasing power of about 5000 pounds of rice. Nowadays, Higuma is still extraordinarily expensive (perhaps even more expensive) costing about $35,000 for a good quality single growth.
On the other hand, Seikai was originally discovered over 200 years ago. However because it is a much faster grower and easier clumper than Higuma and more stable in its characteristics across growth, gradually, the price came down as it was repeatedly divided over the years, and nowadays you can get one for about $50-$100
Propagation by seed is by far a faster method of multiplying specimens of Neos and it is commonly used for colored flower varieties such as Shutenno or Hisui, and also with many tiger variegated types such as Setsuzan, and also for a few other types of variegation such as Fugaku. Because of this, these seed propagated varieties are often cheaper because there is simply a larger supply of these varieties. However, with the increased supply, there is also an increase in the variability between each specimen. Some Shutenno specimens will have darker flowers than others, and leaf lengths and other minor traits may also be different between specimens due to seed variability.
An example of a fairly recently discovered variety where seed propagation has dropped the price down a lot is Homeiden. When the variety was first discovered in 1993, it would easily fetch over $10,000 in auction. The variety is a fast grower and clumper so the price dropped gradually over the years until someone successfully propagated it by seed. At that point, the cost of the variety plummeted, and nowadays, you can get an original division for about $100 and seed grown specimens for about $50.
Micropropagation would perhaps be a way to reap the benefits of both division and seed by quickly multiplying plants while still maintaining a better consistency of characteristics across each specimen. While the consistency would still not be as good as division, it should be better than seed propagation. However, micropropagation is not necessarily an easy procedure, and it seems that there is still not quite enough research done by scientists to be able to reliably micropropagate Neos specifically.
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