1st timer trying to flask

Hi everyone,

I have read over alot of information about flasking and still have a few questions before i get started.

the seeds i purchased from overseas:
Dendrobium primulinum
Rhynchostylis

media i have gone with modified p668 mother flasking (p669)

i have built a sterile box, using a fish tank. i am using baby food jars to start.

So this is as far as ive gotten. I have read different things on the strength of the bleach solution for both the seed as well as the sterile spray, but most seem to lean to 1 part bleach 9 parts water for both is this correct?

One post i have read said that it is smart to rinse the dry seed with a sugar water before doing your bleach sterilizing, something towards it activating any bacteria therefore making it easier for the bleach solution to do its job. Is this true?

Another question is once my medium is in the flask and been through the pressure cooker and cooled to room temp can i then sow or is it smart to leave it sit for a couple weeks to insure sterility?

Thank you all for the help that your past post have givin me and thanks in advance for any new help

Cheers

well sir i prefer to use glass flasks with rubber stoppers and foil over it with the medium placed in the pressure cooker..allow to cool for some days and then use...by that time u will see any fungi or bacterial growth..with the baby food jars spores can enter from below the rim somehow...muchhh less so with the little holes in the stoppers which btw are covered with a round waterproof band aid made by 3M.....u will get plenty contamination if u use those baby jars....now also the bleach is in a ratio of 1 : 5 or 20% solution.....i dont know about ur ordered seeds as i have only used seed capsules harvested from the plants and i clean them with a toothbrush and pure bleach.....sorry i cant help u there

The standard seed disinfection routine you'll see is 1 part bleach to 9 parts water, treated for 10 minutes. Of course you can go stronger or weaker than this but the times treated will vary. I've used this solution on numerous seeds with no issue in contamination. Using sugar is an alternative sterilization technique that uses H2O2 instead of bleach. I haven't done it so I can't really comment on it. There are lots of posts describing it though.

Baby food jars are just fine for seed sowing, practically everyone starts out (and often continues) using them. So much so that you can buy plastic replacement lids from tissue culture supply stores. If using the original lid, make sure to wrap the cap and bottle with saran wrap after flasking to ensure nothing gets in if your lid doesn't completely seal.

You certainly can wait after you pressure cook the flasks, I don't tend to do that but that's just because I haven't ever seen contamination from not sterilizing the media properly. A pressure cooker and a good sealing jar are pretty fool proof.

Good luck.

Thanks a lot for all your help, very helpful and i am looking forward to sowing soon. If all goes well pics will come

Not a problem. Please feel free to post pics no matter the outcome. When I first started my mistakes were as informative as my successes. You don't see very many failures posted on the web because people don't post their failures which can really help diagnose things for future flasker's. Also I remember seeing different things in my flasks that I wasn't really sure what they were. Post them here and I'm sure I or someone else will try to identify them for you.

Good luck and have fun!

well no need to reinvent the wheel or make mistakes....i flask continuously....just tonight i replated 6 flasks from one mother flask of an exeptional line bred Trichocentrum lanceanum that i cannot afford to screw up....it has a few secrets and tricks in this game...u can even save a contaminated flask in some instances....i dont see the need to make mistakes when many have failed to show us the right way...the information is here for us to continue...not to start over......ill post some pics soon

King, I certainly wasn't saying anything of that nature, just pointing out that mistakes do happen and they can help to identify errors in your procedures. Not sure where that came from. Everyone has their own different ways to do things and so long as it works for you good on it.

Maybe a bit off topic, but can't find any place to really ask this...Has anyone had any luck with freezing seed pods until they can be flasked...? I have 7 pods that are about to burst and the lab I use at Doi Tung, Chiang Rai is closed down for renovation for another month. Can't fnd any flasking medium around here so I can't even do it myself. Any help or advice would be surely welcomed...Thanks in advance...:help1:

I would suggest against freezing fresh seed pods. Presumably you are talking about freezing green pods? Basically the freezing process is going to burst cells in the green pod not only causing a mushy mess when you thaw it out but also breaking the sterility of the capsule (one of the purposes of the green pod method). You can definitely freeze seeds but they need to be taken down to a low moisture content prior to freezing to avoid damage. Honestly 3-5c with dried seeds works quite well for short-medium term storage of dry seeds and shouldn't reduce viability much at all except for a few genera that really need to be sown fresh.

That is what I was afraid of...Thank you Ryan...:notworthy:

Not a problem. The only ones that I've worked with that absolutely needed to be sown fresh or pretty close to dehiscence were Phalaenopsis and Coryanthes. Cypripedium candidum, which I'm actually doing my dissertation on, have to be green pod sown or else they build up dormancy mechanisms. These can be overcome but it takes additional steps. The tropical seed that I mentioned actually dies (or goes into a dormancy we don't know about) and can't be recovered. Although many labs will prefer green pods I'm sure they won't have a problem with properly stored and dried seed. If you have the ability, pick up some silica desiccant and a cigar hygrometer. Place the seeds with some desiccant and the hygrometer in a jar and keep them in there until the hygrometer reads 10-20%. The seeds can of course be in some sort of container such as a paper envelope or open microcentrifuge tube. When the seeds dry out properly the container can be closed and stored at 3-5 c for at least 5-10 yrs. with very little loss in germination rate. Let me know if you need anything else.

Hi again,
Thought I would give an update, it has been just over 2 months since I started my flask. I began with one dendro flask and two of the other seed I bought (can't remember the name now). Within the first month the dendro had little green specks, now there are about 100 of them and they are all starting to get spiky, some more than others. The other two aren't doing as well, within a couple of days one of them had a little white spot in it, it has not gotten any bigger just a little white dot, nothing else happening in there. The third flask has had nothing in it until about two days ago when I saw the first little dot, unsure if its orchid or contamination. I'm wondering how long do I wait until I replate my dendros. I have been trying to get some pics up but only have my phone for a internet right now and can't figure out how to post. Any help appreciated.

Cheers
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