Orchid seeds sowing and potting guide

Sowing Orchid Seed:
Growing orchid from seed is the most rewarding, but it will be another five years or so before you see the results of a new flowering orchid, so you will need to be patient.
Step by step guide;
1. pour a small quantity of the seeds into the sterilizing solution.
2. a screw-top jar containing sterilized jelly should be ready to receive the sterilized seed from the test tube.
3. using a platinum wire loop, carefully spread the seed across the surface of the jelly. Reseal the jar.
4. Put the jar there where the temperature can be carefully controlled, under special fluorescent tubes or such other.
5. Within a few days the first signs of life appear as the seed, lying on the surface of the jar turns green.
6. After a few week the seed masses swell into mounds of bright green protocorms. Each one is a individual plant.
7. Within several months, each protocorm will have produced a tiny leaf from the top and a root from the base.
8. The young plants with distinguishable leaves, will grow vigorously on a different medium.


Potting up orchid seedlings:
1. Using a wire hook, remove the seedlings and the agar into the bowl of water. Wear gloves as the water contains a fungicide.
2. Remove the plants, one at a time making sure that they are clean and free from jelly.
3. Grade the seedlings into sizes and discard the smallest and any large misshapen ones.The large ones can be coarse and may produce ugly flowers.
4. Use a compost perhaps of fine bark and perlite, and pot up each seedling into a segregated tray. Hold a plant  by the tip of the leaf and pour the compost in with the other hand. It is not necessary to firm the plant down.
5. The segregation method ensures that if one plant damps off it is not likely to affect its neighbours.
6. When the tray is full label with a stock number or name and the date of potting. Yong seedlings placed in warm place and kept evenly moist will grow quickly.
7. Six to nine months later the tray will be full of vigorous young plants which are now ready for potting now.
8. The advantage of segregated trays is that when the plant is ready for potting into a large pot there is less disturbance of the rootball when it is removed.
9. Damping off often takes place. The aftercare of orchids certainly through the first 12 months as well as through winter can be a trying time for a grower.