Unflasking Dendrophylax Lindenii - The Ghost Orchid
After making sure everything was clean and sterile I broke my flask. Here are the pictures of the nerve wracking aftermath. I kept the largest and healthiest for my improvised terrarium grow area. Then I took a little ride to a local swampy area and found a couple suitable trees to put them on. I also put a couple in a couple places in my back yard that stays damp all the time. I even prayed over the little guys...lets hope they all take!
After breaking the flask I put everything in this soda bottle I had ready. As per my studies I put a drop of a rooting hormone, physan and my own addition; honey. I swirled everything around gently after removing the large pieces of glass and then left them to soak while I re-bleached my hands.
I've enlarged several pictures so you can see the tiny things. When I saw how many were floating I was thrilled. I expected 5-8 plantlets and instead found a couple dozen. There were also tiny ones floating in there I didn't count. You know I sent a thank you letter to this vendor!
I was advised to use several surfaces and on top of the suggested variety I added a new one of my own. I used a plastic netting type bag, filled it with moss and then sat a few of the smaller plantlets on top of the netting.
I felt that I wanted to try a twig with the moss growing on it since moss and ghost orchids seem to be found side by side growing in the wild.
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