Orchid in a tube!!!

[jenilee]

I was talking to someone in my office that has an orchid! BUT it's in a test tube sitting in a wooden stand to hold it upright...SUPER COOL!!! Anyone ever seen these? Know where to get one? (she got it as a present)

It's growing in a gel of some sort...Looks really neat!

[RobS]

All orchids that are sown start their life like this. In nature orchid seeds rely on fungi to get their first nutrients. Artificialy this done by using media that are gel like and supply nutriets to the seeds and young plants. Few orchids are small enough to actually flower in a test tube or similar. Where to get them commercially I wouldn't know.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Unless, that person gets extremely lucky, there aren't enough seedlings in that test tube to possibly make it to maturity.

Deflasking and raising an orchid seedling to a large enough size so that it can be grown similarly to its adult counterpart is a whole different skill from growing an adult orchid.

Don't expect that plant to live in that test tube forever either. Once the seedling starts to outgrow the test tube, it must either be deflasked, or just left to die in the test tube.

Deflasking offers the best shot at seeing them make it. The odds can be very low. Especially if the person who's handling the deflasking is a novice. Particularly if the situation is what you're describing it to be.

I really don't mean to bust anyone's chops or bubble, but this is the reality.

Just to give you an idea of what I mean...

I once got 2 real hobby flasks of orchid seedlings, but they were weak flasks (most of the seedlings were not separated by size, and many seedlings didn't have a strong root system). Out of a group of approximately 30 weak seedlings, I only got 6 to survive in the end.

Beyond the above example, there are numerous things that can go wrong even when you receive good, strong flasks, and that's just how it is.

Of course, conversely, the greater your skill level at deflasking and raising seedlings is, the higher the odds will be in your favor.

Compare what I said about either a real hobby flask (usually 15 to 20 seedlings) or a real commercial flask (usually 30 to 50 seedlings) to the test tube (1 or 2 seedlings).

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

That gel is an agar growing medium that replicates the nutrients that a fungal symbiont provides the baby orchid while it is in its infancy. It's technically not just agar, but rather it's agar with a bunch of chemicals mixed in, with each chemical at different concentrations, which makes the agar medium formulated a certain way.

The gel will eventually dehydrate or go bad. Sometimes, it can contract bacterial or fungal contamination, which will kill the seedlings fairly quickly depending on the size of the seedlings or how fast or how properly the problem is handled.

Even when the flask is treated for bacterial or fungal infections, the affliction may recur repeatedly.

If you're lucky, the infections will stop once the flask has been treated properly and the seedlings will continue to grow until they're ready to be deflasked.

If you're not, the whole group of seedlings must be destroyed and the flask re-sterilized depending on the state of affairs with the seedlings.

If you're even luckier, nothing bad will happen to the flask at all.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I know where to get those, but I'm looking out for you and the plants, so I would like to dissuade you from getting one.

Sorry.

Should you still want one, I highly recommend you buy at least 10 test tubes; which still may not guarantee you squat.

Now if you bought anywhere from 20 to 40 test tubes, now we're talkin'.

Can you afford this?

Of course, the cheaper alternative would be:

If you're serious about obtaining seedlings in flask and raising orchid babies, you should really try getting a real commercial flask with 30 to 50 seedlings per flask, or a real hobby flask with 15 to 20 seedlings per flask.

I also recommend a genera of orchid you're very familiar with growing where the seedling morphology is similar enough to the morphology of the adult plant.

I don't recommend any seedlings from the Stanhopea family for novices. You will get a very unpleasant surprise - particularly if the person who sold you the flask neglected to tell you, for whatever reasons, what the seedlings look like. Most novices will not know how to deal with these seedlings from the Stanhopea family and get fed up with trying to grow orchids from seedlings.

Here's why:

Seedlings from the Stanhopea family start off as tiny vines. Not a neat little miniature version of the adults with pseudobulbs. That comes at least a year or more later.

Fresh out of flask, seedlings from the Stanhopea family are a tangled mess of delicate vining rhizomes and leaves, with equally fragile and vining roots. It's difficult to make heads or tails of these things sometimes.

[BobInBonita]

Jennilee
Send a picture if you can.

I'm imagining this as a bit different than the commercial flasking that the King and Rob are talking about. (My imagination has gotten me into trouble too many times to count, so I may be totally off base here.)

The way you described it as "an orchid" in "a test tube" sounds pretty singular, whereas flasks are community things with several plants and larger than a test tube. I'm imagining a single miniature in (or above) a large test tube with humidity controlled by the gel. Sort of a shrunken Vanda in a vase idea. Never seen it, but intrigued.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by BobInBonita

Jennilee
Send a picture if you can.

I'm imagining this as a bit different than the commercial flasking that the King and Rob are talking about. (My imagination has gotten me into trouble too many times to count, so I may be totally off base here.)

The way you described it as "an orchid" in "a test tube" sounds pretty singular, whereas flasks are community things with several plants and larger than a test tube. I'm imagining a single miniature in (or above) a large test tube with humidity controlled by the gel. Sort of a shrunken Vanda in a vase idea. Never seen it, but intrigued.

You're correct, she's not talking about the commercial flasks.

I know exactly what she's talking about.

Some labs grow a small portion of seeds in test tubes as test subjects to see if the seeds are worth sowing (a form of seed viability testing without wasting materials, time, labor, and seeds). These test tube, orchid seedlings can sometimes be sold as souvenirs or curios at gift shops in foreign countries in areas that are high in tourist traffic.

The proceeds of these sales are generally used to run the labs, or for the tourist economy (maybe both). They make this perfectly clear.

They are also sold on the web...

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Btw, I know, 'cause I got suckered too.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Oh yeah, I once wrote a couple of extremely lengthy descriptions on possible ways to handle seedlings from the Stanhopea family.

I encourage you to look for it on the OB's search engine if you're interested.

[Melody]

Ok, so is this still a "seedling" even though it's in flower? And would it still be hard to deflask and have it survive? It's a Psygmorchis pusilla.