The Peruvian Orchid Club [our members]

Restrepia guttulata Lindley 1836
photoŠ Eric Hunt, www.orchidphotos.org

Masdevalia infracta Lindley 1833 photoŠ Eric Hunt
www.orchidphotos.org

Masdevallia amaluzae
Luer & Malo 1978
fotoŠ Eric Hunt, www.orchidphotos.org

Masdevallia coriacea Lindley 1845
fotoŠ Eric Hunt, www.orchidphotos.org

Masdevallia amabilis Reichenbach f. & Warsc. 1854
fotoŠ Frank Hajek

Articles

Care of Orchid Seedlings, most species and hybrids
by Peter Croezen. Canada, May 2001

SEEDLINGS IN FLASK

Nutrients
All nutrients required by seedlings are provided by the medium inside the flask.

Light
Keep light intensity at a low level; never place
flasks in direct sunlight. For artificial lighting, two
forty Watts, four feet fluorescent lamps, Cool White type, over a two by four feet growing surface. Flask tops about 15-20 cm below the lamps. Lights on 12 to 14 hours per day, remaining 12 to 10 hours uninterrupted dark period is very important for seedling development.

Air and Moisture
Flasks have filtered tops for air and moisture exchange, filters prevent airborne contaminants from entering and contaminating the sterile environment inside the flask. Keep an adequate level of relative humidity around the flasks. DO NOT REMOVE the filtered closure, until deflasking time.

Temperature
The ideal temperature range is 24 to 26C, day and night, for most species.

DEFLASKING SEEDLINGS
Fill flask with water of the same temperature as the flask
temperature (feel.) Swirl to break up the agar medium in the bottom. Separate entangled roots with a plastic knitting needle.

Pour seedling-agar mixture into a bowl. Gently wash all agar off leaves and roots. Submerge seedlings for ten minutes in a weak liquid fungicide solution such as benomyl. Retrieve seedlings and pot them immediately in a sphagnum filled community pot.

COMMUNITY POTTING
A community pot contains anywhere from ten to fifteen seedlings. Seedlings just deflasked do much better in a community pot than in individual pots. Use a well drained 10 to 12 cm plastic pot.
Fill the pot to three centimeters below the top with wet sphagnum moss ( NZ or Chile moss.) Wrap each seedling's root system loosely in sphagnum moss, making certain leaves and leaf bases are free of moss. Place the sphagnum moss-seedling packages side by side in the pot and completely fill the pot. Fill in the odd open space between packages with extra sphagnum moss. Make
certain the sphagnum is firm enough to hold up the seedlings, but also loose enough to allow easy air and water access to the roots.

COMMUNITY POT CARE
Grow under moderate light intensity; the same setup as for flasks is fine for community pots. Keep community pots out of direct sunlight. Provide adequate air movement over seedlings. A small four inch muffin fan is ideal. Keep relative humidity at 100% for the first week by covering several community pots with a plastic dome, then gradually reduce the RH to 60-70%. Always keep
sphagnum moss moist, never let it dry out where the roots are, and never have it soaking wet, except just after watering. Water as often as is required in your particular growing environment.

This will be the more tricky part of growing seedlings, for too wet they die, to dry they die. Fertilize wet roots only, to prevent burning them, this is best done immediately following watering.

Use a very weak balanced fertilizer, like 7-7-7, or 20-20-20. When community pot grown seedlings have leaves of about 15 cm in length, they may be transferred to individual pots. Continue the same culture routine as for community pots; gradually change it to how you treat mature plants.

Note: Some cool growing species, like Odontoglossums, may develop pseudobulbs in flask, if the flask are kept close to 16ş C. Pseudobulbs on small seedlings increase survival rates in community pots.

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