Thanks for visiting our site!
Orchid Seeds
Checkout Ebay Auctions For The Cheapest Prices
 |
US $7.90
| Powered by phpBay Pro |
Here are some more information for Orchid Seeds:
Orchids are able to live in all sorts of circumstances - from the rain forest to the arctic circle. You would think since they are so adaptable to almost every environment, they would be able to survive with no problem in homes and gardens. With selection from the 30,000 species of orchids now identified and hybrids, which number in the 200,000 to 300,000 range, it should be easy to choose the perfect orchid to grow in your particular location.
Even with these facts, orchids are still believed to be difficult to grow. Many of them are indeed difficult but there are so many thousands of orchids, it is usually pretty easy to find one that will successfully grow inside or outside wherever you are located. If you are a beginner, you should start with a mature plant to grow your first orchid.
It is almost impossible to grow orchids from seeds. They need sterile conditions and the presence of a special fungus, without which an orchid can never germinate. This is why even orchids send out thousands of seeds having only one or two successfully germinate. It is possible to propagate by division and this is an easier method. Just remember that it could take up to eight years before a plant started in this manner flowers.
Orchids don't follow many general rules but this one applies to most orchids: Place your orchids, whether inside or outside, in a spot where they will get lots of light. Because light hours are so limited in the winter in colder climates, you will most likely want to install artificial lights to help them grow. Whether you use grow lights or other types of light will depend on the species of orchid you are growing. When you purchase your orchid, check to see if it requires very high intensity lights.
Orchids are not one of those plants you can never water and ignore for months at a time. While they definitely don't like to be over-watered, orchids do like a once-per-week watering. They should dry out between one watering and the next, but they should never be completely dry. Also, be careful about watering an orchid that was just replanted or has been disturbed in some way. Orchids are also not terribly fond of the dry air created in the winter by most of today's furnaces. You will most likely need to get a humidifier. Most orchids love hot, humid weather and are not unhappy even with 70% to 80% humidity.
Orchids are fertilizer-lovers. Throughout the growing season, you should keep them fertilized, especially while they are flowering because most flower for an extensive amount of time. There is always controversy among gardeners about what fertilizer is best. Overall, liquid fertilizer is preferred. But you can go completely organic, such as with fish emulsions or fertilizer from worm castings. Or, you can use synthetic fertilizers such as 10-10-10, 30-10-10 or 10-10-30. Specific orchid fertilizers are also available.
As for the growing medium itself, everyone has their own favorite formula. It also depends on the type of orchid you are growing. You can use fir bark, coconut fiber, sphagnum moss, peat moss, roots of dried fern, cork, or lava rock, to name several. Some orchids are classified as terrestrials and can grow in soil, such as cymbidiums and paphiopedilums.
Cattleyas, Epidendrumns, Oncidiums, and Laelias are the easiest orchids for beginners. Be patient with whichever type of orchid you plant. Your efforts will be rewarded in time with beautiful flowers which are long-lasting.
From orchid beginners to orchid experts, Mary Ann Berdak is known for her rediscovery of long-lost, quick & easy orchid care secrets. She has finally made available to you the definitive step-by-step system to grow beautiful and healthy orchids in your home...guaranteed! For more information, and more free tips, visit: http://www.OrchidSecretsRevealed.com
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
About the Author
David E. Carlson is a longtime gardening & orchid enthusiast. For more information about <a href="http://www.orchid-flower-care.com/orchid-propagation-techniques/">orchid seed propagation</a> visit <a href="http://www.orchid-flower-care.com/">Orchid-Flower-Care.com</a>.
My Dendrobium Orchid has formed a large seed pod. What can be done with it, if anything???--Cassie?
Congratulations on your seed pod, but unless you’re an orchid grower, and have ten years or so to wait there is not much you can do with the seeds. Unfortunately, it takes a special growing medium, and controlled temperatures to grow orchids from seed. The seeds are grown in glass flasks, and will take ten years before they bloom.
Botanical Garden a Haven for Exotic Plants
For Paul Licht, director of the UC Botanical Garden, the arrival of nearly 1,000 rare plants captured in a 2001 federal sting on an international plant smuggling operation forever changed the face of the sage-old oasis.
Thanks for visiting!
