propagate phal orchid seeds

[armrest]

Hello , I am attempting to propagate phal orchid seeds from my wife's plants. This is my first post, I have enjoyed reading many other posts here.

[JoeW]

This is very interesting. What got you started? Please describe your process from seed harvest through to capping the container. Thanks and welcome to the forum. Joe

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Yes, please share your process. Welcome!

cheers,
BD

[delphiguy]

oh yes please do tell.

[Dail]

Hi:

This looks very interesting. What medium are you using for propagation of the seeds? Is the medium home-made?

Best wishes,
Dail

[margo]

This is very interesting! Please share with us every step you made and keep us posted with the future progress!

[dudleyleroux]

whoa if you get a high germination rate, you are going to be drowning in phals.

[Louis_C]

Keep undated. I'm curious how do you sterilize your media with plastic bottles? I assume you sterilize chemically since pop bottles cannot withstand heat.

[flasker]

good luck and keep the posts coming...

[armrest]

Hello everyone. In response to your questions my flasking techniques was basically learned from these orchid forums but I cheated somewhat. I stored the bottles in a pail with a weak bleach solution, the bottles were also filled with it. After a few days I prepared the agar mixture with 3 bananas , 1 average potato, sugar, and some charcoal from burnt wood. The agar package was 25g so I used 3 liters of water. After a few days I cut the pod that was ready and sliced it with a flame sterilized steak knife. I quickly tapped the pod over a piece of paper with a crease ( to aid pouring the seeds in each bottle). I tapped the paper gently over each bottle and sealed each with its lid (which was dipped in a bleach solution while the seeds were being poured). As the seeds ran out I tapped the pod over the paper to add more seeds to the paper. This process was repeated each time a pod was ready. Twice the pods had burst but only one of them had large scale contamination, and the other time there was not much (just started bursting i think). The other pods (green) had almost no contamination in the bottles. I don't recommend my method this is just in response to some of your questions. I am sure I was mostly lucky with my lack of contamination in some bottles.