2009 February | Calwest Orchid Supplies

Archive for February, 2009

28
Feb

lady orchid

How do I raise a Lady Slipper Orchid from seed?

I’ve got about 1,000 Lady Slipper Orchid seeds, and I wanted to plant a few. How would I go about planting it from seed? As for the special orchid mix soil stuff, are there any homemade substitutes for this mix? I know bark and broken bricks work well, but do I mix only that? Can anyone help with all of these questions?

Are you talking Paphiopedilum or Cypripedium? Paphs are epiphytes and Cypripedium is a terrestrial and they both have extremely different growing conditions. As for sowing seed of any orchid species it is best to send it off to a lab. There are labs that specialize in sowing seed for orchid growers and if you send them your seed then they will send you a flask full of seedlings that you will need to pot. Sowing orchid seed requires a sterile environment that is why it is done in a lab.

You can try at home but you might not have success. You will need a sterilizing solution,agar solution, rubber gloves, small test tube beaker and sterilized mason jars.
1) Sterilize all equipment in autoclave or boiling water bath and allow to cool.
2) Pour some sterilizing solution into test tube then add seed
3) Add agar to sterile jar
4) Using a sterile metal tool (preferably a platinum loop) scoop seed out of test tube and spread on agar jelly and spread out
5) The jar is capped (clear cap) and placed under fluorescent tubes in an area where temperature can be carefully controlled
6) After a few days, if it is viable, the seed lying on the surface should turn green
7) After a few weeks the seed should swell into bright green protocorms
After several months the protocorms will produce a tiny leaf
9) When there are visible roots and nice leaves you can remove them rinse, and pot in seedling medium

You might not even make it past step 6 because the agar can easily become contaminated with mold or weed seeds which will grow much faster then the orchids and choke them out. Also, orchid plants typically create seed pods in which none of the seed is viable. also some of the things required to do the sowing are expensive and not easy to come by. I would opt for the lab, Good luck.