How to Propagate Orchid Seeds

 

Orchids are extremely difficult to propagate from seed. Most orchids that are propagated from seed are propagated in a laboratory setting. First of all, total sterility is needed. Secondly, orchid seed is almost like dust - it's that tiny. Other seeds have food within them to sustain the new seedling. This is not true of orchid seeds. Special techniques must be used to keep the plant alive during the earliest stages of its development. Orchid seeds also need a symbiotic fungus to germinate. It can take three to five years from germination for an orchid plant grown from seed to bloom. oberon

If you're going to go to all the trouble to propagate from seed be sure to hand pollinate your orchid. There's no sense in spending years waiting for an orchid to bloom only to discover it isn't what you thought it was. Make sure, if you're hoping to grow a wonderful new hybrid that you are absolutely sure of the parentage of the orchids you will be using. The best place to get them is from very reputable suppliers. namdhari seeds

You will need someplace to create a sterile environment - perhaps some sort of box that you can sterilize. You will also need a spray bottle that's 10% bleach and soap solution (bleach and dish detergent), latex gloves, a 500ml beaker, flasks with one hole rubbers stoppers, some sterile cotton to fill the holes in the stoppers, something to label with, a pressure cooker or an autoclave, razor blades, a toothbrush, a syringe, some bamboo skewers, aluminum foil, a grow room, a tray, a gallon of distilled water and growing medium. Make sure that the growing medium works for the kind of orchid you are attempting to propagate from seed. nativo fungicide

Once you have a ripe seed pod, which can take three to six months, you need to clean it with the bleach and soap mixture using a toothbrush while wearing latex gloves. Then put it in the sterile box (you can sterilize that with the bleach and soap mixture as well). Put medium in the sterile flasks and lay them sideways. Cut the pod open with the razor blade. Keep the pod on a paper towel and, using skewers, remove some of the seeds from inside the pod and then wipe them on the medium in each flask. Don't put in too many seeds. They are very, very tiny. bayer pesticides

Add some distilled water (about 30 ml) to each flask and put the rubber stopper in the flask. Make sure that the hole is covered with cotton. Cover the ends with foil and label each flask. bayer products

Place the flasks in the grow room. Check for possible contamination every few days. If one of the flasks is contaminated the medium will be streaked and the water will be murky.

You may not actually see any plants growing for up to a year! Once the seedlings are too big for the flasks you can remove them and plant them in trays of medium.