Hormone Rooting solutions
 

I have recently re-started my orchid collection after 5 years, in the mean time I moved from Michigan to Florida..

I ordered a few blooming size and NBS plants and maybe thirty or so seedlings.

I have been 'painting' the base of the seedlings with Olivia's Cloning Solution without dilution (because I had it on hand) and I seem to be getting strong new root growth...

Has anyone else tried this and what are the pro's and con's of doing this...

never heard of that product. but i use superthrive when i water, and soak the plants in a solution of it, if i feel they need an extra boost

where did you buy them? which ones did you get? wed love to see pics!

My seedlings came from Oakhill Gardens in Chicago. I used to buy lots of plants there and have always found them very reasonable, so that's where I started when I wanted a new collection.
Most of them are relatively small and anywhere from 2-5 years from blooming, (that's why I added a few BS & NBS plants).
I'll try a few photographs of emerging roots if my camera will show that detail. I feel it's more than coincidence that I'm getting 2/3 new root growths on maybe 30% of these seedlings...

could have something to do with it. if its not a a special orchid rooting hormone, than you might want to be careful, if its not diluted and applied to often, it can burn them.

what plants did you get? ( ex. phal violacea, den apertum,catt intermedia)

I got a selection, mainly species..

A few Paphs (warm growing), a couple of Phals, many Cat/Laelia species, 2 Vanda types, 3 Stanhopeas, 2 Lycaste, and a few thin leafed types, like Huntleya which came by default...

thats cool! what phals and laelias/catts did you get? i keep them

The Phals were schileriana and stuartiana,

The Cat's, Aurentiaca, maxima, intermedia, bowringiana, skinnerii, L. ancepts, tenabrosa, purpurata. B. nodosa, cuculatta, Epi paniculatum, Enc. cordigera

Stanhopea wardii, tigrina, jenishiana

Vandopsis parishii, Asco. curvifolium, Aer. luteo alba

Angreacum didieri

nice! thanks for the list i love it!! i have alaelia anceps, and i want a brassovola nodosa!

In the past I had a large B. nodosa, it flowers wonderfully, although I like the B cuculatta flower more, but the hybrids 'Little Stars, David Sanders, etc flower almost constantly and grow into large plants very quickly.

cool!

Great choices in the L tenebrosa and the two Phals, and the C intermedia!

:) Here's hoping they all do well for you. I've switched to liquid kelp as a rooting hormone after ruining too many spikes with SuperThrive. We're 'rooting' for you!

how do you ruin a spike with superthrive?

Using superthrive can occasionally cause flowers to be malformed or crinkled, and fade quickly, especially with higher doses. Doesn't happen to everybody- but I've learned the hard way to cut off the ST as soon as a spike starts.

Liquid kelp is very safe- I've seen people accidentally use it full strength with no bad affects. Some say it works better than KLN or ST.

where do you get this liquid kelp?

I originally posted hoping someone had some first hand experience trying to stimulate roots with rooting hormones. Here's my very limited experience so far:-
As I said earlier, I painted the base of seedling leaves/psuedobulbs with Oliveria's Cloning solution. Two weeks later I have two, three or four new root starts on each plant and some mounts where the growing tip of the root was not activily growing I'm seeing new green growing tips.
Since I'm about to start a trial potting in Lava-rock/spagnum, it occurred to me that it might be a good practice to paint the base of plants a few weeks before re-potting (especially, if going to a different medium) so that new roots are starting ready to adjust to the conditions of their new medium.
I'm only speculating, so if there's any thoughts out there, I would love the input.
I'm sure this has been asked thousands of times, how do I post pictures here?

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...chidboard.html

this should help

Hopefully, I managed to upload a couple of seedlings showing the root starts from using Cloning soln.

:shock::shock: whats it called again? i might try this. do you think it would work on adults? they look pretty big

I've been using Olivia's Cloning Solution, which I bought 1 qrt of years ago on the internet. The container suggests 1tsp/gal as a soak and watering solution. I can't find anything on the container that suggests it's got anything more than very low amounts of NPK, but I guess that's not unusually with these solutions. I bought it, because I had had excellent results using it's sister product called Olivia's Rooting Gel (a direct replacement for rooting powder) on cuttings.
I see no reason it wouldn't work on adult plants, my guess is if it doesn't hurt seedlings it won't hurt larger plants. One of the photographs (the small mount) is a NBS Aerangis luteo-alba according to the source, yep I know it's tiny...

they dont actually look that small. so thats a good thing! ill google that hormone thing

I apologize 'Help', it never occurred to me to post a web-site. If you didn't already find it, try Olivia's Solutions Propagation Made Easy (I'll learn how to make it an active link...(I hope)

alright, thanks! that helps

Call around to Garden Centers and see if they have any kelp-based fertilizers/rooting solutions.

You might find some searching online too.
One example at repotme- Neptunes Harvest Liquid Concentrate Seaweed - 16oz

Neptune's Harvest Organic (2-3-1) (Fertilizer & Nutrients) : Kelley's Korner Orchid Supplies, We offer everything to grow great Orchids!