Seeing the progression of the seeds and seedlings was fascinating! Thank you for taking the time to make this video and including the amazing pictures.
I am glad that you enjoyed the video - it did take some time to assemble but I had everything that I needed on that day to put it together. Happy Propagating!
Thanks so much for your comment. This video took some preparation and I am hoppy how it turned out. I hope that others find it useful and entertaining.
I love watching you work in the lab. I feel like watching my lab course. It´s so interesting seeing the embryos in different stages. Thanks for the detailed video!
I generally enjoy watching your lab videos, like to see what is currently developing or what has changed. But i think i´d also love seeing something on the native orchids you spoke about in a different video. I come from Europe and just recently got into orchids, so i do not know very much about which orchid species are native to florida. Im sure they may not be the most impressing, but maybe they could get a spot in your backyard. But i also love watching your videos on juniors orchids, and on more technical stuff like on how to deflask or how to harvest pollinia. Oh and obviously seeing some bloom updates is always great. But honestly i think i will have to watch some more of your videos to not ask for any already existing stuff. But please keep up the good work! I absolutely love listening to how you talk about orchids, you sound so calm but still enthusiastic. Better than any podcast.
I am glad that you liked it - this one took some planning and luckily, I had a lot of dishes/flasks showing most of the different stages of seedling growth. Happy Propagating!
Love these topics...Can't argue with your crazy-root seedlings...I guess 40 years of experience doesn't hurt. Always amazed at your results. I'm still trying to figure the differences in growth in different flasks with all variables equal..medium, PH, mixing, same seed etc. but some will zoom, others are stagnant as protocorms.
Have you asked me this before? This is really hard for me to answer without actually seeing what you are doing. Subtle differences between flasks can lead to big differences in growth. IF you believe that EVERYTHING in each flask is exactly the same (flasks swirled and components evenly suspended, etc), then the only differences are the placement in your growing area and the amount of material that you put in the flask. Are these seedlings or seeds? If seeds, the sinkers are the better seed but you may have too many seed per flask.If too dense, development will stall. Floaters will not be as vigorous as sinkers. Not each of the seeds is exactly the same - I show some of the variability in seedling development. I pick my seedlings under the scope and I get them very uniform on replacing. If you do not do this, you will see variability, depending on what you put in each flask. Sorry - really hard to answer without data or seeing what you are doing.....
Yes I figured it's something in my process but really trying to be as exact along the whole process, yet will get quite a difference in protocorms and replating. I was hoping you would say "I get quite a bit of variability as I felt so much better when you mentioned that even you all get contamination a bit, so figured my 5-10% failure was acceptable. ...Trial & error....I'll hopefully figure it out. Thanks
Keeping or not keeping the slow growers, that is the question! It's been controversial since a long time. Some variations and oddities do tend to show up more often among them, since sometimes the genetics behind these varieties have other effects than just color or shape of flowers. But one must ask himself if it is worth having some variations at the expense of the overall plant's health! The debate is still open! I keep them if the overall yield of the given crossing is too low for any reason. Also, since I work in the tight space of a home-made glovebox, I don't have the freedom of movement to go picking and choosing much when it is time to replate! Whatever "mass" of little plantlets or protocorms come with the forceps are the ones being replated! That is far from ideal, since I end up with flasks containing seedlings of extremely different sizes.
Thanks for your comment. Most of the orchid seed work that I do involves flasking, where the seed capsules are harvested and sterilized, and the contents are placed in Petri dishes under sterile conditions in the lab. In the old days, people used to use lab flasks and the "flasking" name stuck. If you do not have access to a lab, I give some ideas on how you can try to grow orchids from seed without a lab in this video: th-cam.com/video/McJlZowKTys/w-d-xo.html Thanks again for watching!
Thanks for the great video. What is the typical magnification used for viewing the seed? Have you used any staining techniques to assess seed viability?
I use a dissecting microscope with a zoom magnifier so I do not know the magnification You can see the embryos under pretty low magnification. I think that you can use a camera on a decent phone, and see embryos when you zoom in. Once you know what you are looking for, the embryos are obvious. For viability, I do not use a stain, which I think kills the embryo. I just wait a few days to see if the embryo turns green and gets bigger. With fresh seed, most of the existing embryos are viable and will turn green. With seed that is stored, I think that viability goes down, depending on the state of the seed and how it was stored. Tetrazolium is useful but I have not put too much effort into precise monitoring of seed viability. Thanks for your comment.
I am not sure it is the medium components or the environment or even the plating density that gives nice roots. It may even be that I lowered or eliminated something. I use a mostly defined medium that I am still optimizing.
Seeing the progression of the seeds and seedlings was fascinating! Thank you for taking the time to make this video and including the amazing pictures.
I am glad that you enjoyed the video - it did take some time to assemble but I had everything that I needed on that day to put it together. Happy Propagating!
This is already one of my favorite of your videos!
Thanks so much for your comment. This video took some preparation and I am hoppy how it turned out. I hope that others find it useful and entertaining.
I love watching you work in the lab.
I feel like watching my lab course.
It´s so interesting seeing the embryos in different stages.
Thanks for the detailed video!
Thanks for the comment - what else do you think that you would be interested in seeing?
I generally enjoy watching your lab videos, like to see what is currently developing or what has changed.
But i think i´d also love seeing something on the native orchids you spoke about in a different video.
I come from Europe and just recently got into orchids, so i do not know very much about which orchid species are native to florida.
Im sure they may not be the most impressing, but maybe they could get a spot in your backyard.
But i also love watching your videos on juniors orchids, and on more technical stuff like on how to deflask or how to harvest pollinia.
Oh and obviously seeing some bloom updates is always great.
But honestly i think i will have to watch some more of your videos to not ask for any already existing stuff.
But please keep up the good work!
I absolutely love listening to how you talk about orchids, you sound so calm but still enthusiastic.
Better than any podcast.
@@Ghostpants. Thanks for your detailed comment. I will keep these good suggestions in mind as I make future videos.
Thank you for sharing! This is so interesting to me! I can hardly wait until I’m ready to move to propagating phase when I retire!😂
Thanks for your comment. Retirement and orchid propagating are both awesome!! Lots of room in that club…
Vey interesting John. Thank you.
Thanks for watching and for your comment. I am happy that you enjoyed it - it was fun to make.
Very interesting video. Thank you
I am glad that you liked it - this one took some planning and luckily, I had a lot of dishes/flasks showing most of the different stages of seedling growth. Happy Propagating!
Very interesting😌🙏💖I enjoyed watching
Thanks for watching - I am happy that you enjoyed it!🙂
Love these topics...Can't argue with your crazy-root seedlings...I guess 40 years of experience doesn't hurt. Always amazed at your results. I'm still trying to figure the differences in growth in different flasks with all variables equal..medium, PH, mixing, same seed etc. but some will zoom, others are stagnant as protocorms.
Have you asked me this before? This is really hard for me to answer without actually seeing what you are doing. Subtle differences between flasks can lead to big differences in growth. IF you believe that EVERYTHING in each flask is exactly the same (flasks swirled and components evenly suspended, etc), then the only differences are the placement in your growing area and the amount of material that you put in the flask. Are these seedlings or seeds? If seeds, the sinkers are the better seed but you may have too many seed per flask.If too dense, development will stall. Floaters will not be as vigorous as sinkers. Not each of the seeds is exactly the same - I show some of the variability in seedling development. I pick my seedlings under the scope and I get them very uniform on replacing. If you do not do this, you will see variability, depending on what you put in each flask. Sorry - really hard to answer without data or seeing what you are doing.....
Yes I figured it's something in my process but really trying to be as exact along the whole process, yet will get quite a difference in protocorms and replating. I was hoping you would say "I get quite a bit of variability as I felt so much better when you mentioned that even you all get contamination a bit, so figured my 5-10% failure was acceptable. ...Trial & error....I'll hopefully figure it out. Thanks
Keeping or not keeping the slow growers, that is the question! It's been controversial since a long time. Some variations and oddities do tend to show up more often among them, since sometimes the genetics behind these varieties have other effects than just color or shape of flowers. But one must ask himself if it is worth having some variations at the expense of the overall plant's health! The debate is still open! I keep them if the overall yield of the given crossing is too low for any reason. Also, since I work in the tight space of a home-made glovebox, I don't have the freedom of movement to go picking and choosing much when it is time to replate! Whatever "mass" of little plantlets or protocorms come with the forceps are the ones being replated! That is far from ideal, since I end up with flasks containing seedlings of extremely different sizes.
Yeah - I was told that tetraploids are slow growers I look for vigorous growers but also nice seedling form…
@@plantpropagator I've had a few slow growing Catsetum seedlings that turned out to be Album form.
Do you have a video on how to harvest the orchid seeds?
Love your channel
Thank you.
Thanks for your comment. Most of the orchid seed work that I do involves flasking, where the seed capsules are harvested and sterilized, and the contents are placed in Petri dishes under sterile conditions in the lab. In the old days, people used to use lab flasks and the "flasking" name stuck. If you do not have access to a lab, I give some ideas on how you can try to grow orchids from seed without a lab in this video:
th-cam.com/video/McJlZowKTys/w-d-xo.html
Thanks again for watching!
Thanks for the great video. What is the typical magnification used for viewing the seed? Have you used any staining techniques to assess seed viability?
I use a dissecting microscope with a zoom magnifier so I do not know the magnification You can see the embryos under pretty low magnification. I think that you can use a camera on a decent phone, and see embryos when you zoom in. Once you know what you are looking for, the embryos are obvious. For viability, I do not use a stain, which I think kills the embryo. I just wait a few days to see if the embryo turns green and gets bigger. With fresh seed, most of the existing embryos are viable and will turn green. With seed that is stored, I think that viability goes down, depending on the state of the seed and how it was stored. Tetrazolium is useful but I have not put too much effort into precise monitoring of seed viability. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for sharing.
What you add in the media to get these great roots?
Thanks.
I am not sure it is the medium components or the environment or even the plating density that gives nice roots. It may even be that I lowered or eliminated something. I use a mostly defined medium that I am still optimizing.
@@plantpropagator
Some add potatoes and banana.
Thanks a lot for your update.
Daniel
I do add banana - ripe bananas or banana baby food. But, the added citric acid in the baby food may be detrimental.