If you had a choice: In Flask or Out of Flask?
 

Hi all! I'm new to the propagation, but I am eager to learn. If I was to get orchid babies and I had a choice of either a "1/2 flask containing 12-15 seedlings shipped out of flask with guarantee safe delivery" or a "1/2 flask containing 12-15 seedlings shipped in flask - no guarantee safe delivery"....

which should I choose as a beginner? It seems to me that although the in flask is not guaranteed, it could buy me some time, provided it does not come broken?

The biggest problem is that the flasks get terribly jumbled in-transit, so the seedlings become a tangled mess of plants coated in agar, meaning you have to deflask them right away to clean them.

You're better off letting the vendor do the deflasking.

Like Ray says, flasks coming through the mail end up looking like agar soup with plantlets floating around. The plants will probably be in much better shape if you buy them already deflasked.

Wonderful, thank you for your help and answers! What by the way is agar made of? I know it's the stuff that the orchids "sit in" but other than that, I obviously am lacking knowledge ;)

Agar is the main ingredien ingredient of what the seedlings grow in, and is a sort of gelatinous substancea extracted from seaweed. It's only purpose is to act as a gelling agent, so that the seeds can germinate and grow in something somewhat solid. It comes in a power form, and you need to add water and bring it to a boil so that it will set when cooling. However agar contains no nutrients, so those are added in. The nutrients used depend on the orchid genus and also the stage of development of the plant. Often seeds will be sown in one type of medium that is suited for germination, and once they are the size of a pinhead they are transferred to another medium, which is more suited for root and plant growth. That's the explanation in a nutshell, but if you are interested in knowing more I can see if there are some old threads here that explain the basics.

oooooh! that makes sense! Thank you! Very intriguing! It's such a detailed process, and so fascinating. I'd love to know more, so if you can give me either the search terms, I can find the threads, or if you know roughly where they are, I would love reading them. I think this may just be right up my alley.

Do most grow seedlings/flasklings (?) under lights, or a mix of both depending on environment and season? I think it would be so rewarding. One I'd like to try growing is the paph kovachii (‘laura’ x ‘ana) &/or a paph armeniacum.... I think one of those blooms would be worth waiting for OMG.

Troys deflasks for you and ships in whirly paks which is really nice.

I compot them when they arrive and then stick them in the shadehouse. In the winter, they go under lights and heat and I seal up the shadehouse.

You can see the pics of some of my compots in this thread (#6 reply)

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...up-winter.html

Wow, wow, wow! I heart your set up! If I could apply that to an indoor room that would be great. I do have a nice big black wire shelving unit that I could use, but I need to learn more about what lighting is best to use... what does it all mean when you say T5 and T12? Since mine would be indoors, would it be vital to have a fan too? My basement room only has one small window facing west, and in the winter it can be cold in the room, but I have the option to have the heater vent on or off, however its never really incredibly warm in there. You said your shadehouse in the evenings is about 61... which I would say in this laundry room, it's usually about that or up to maybe 65 at the highest.

Of course I would love to have a greenhouse outside, but with our winter weather getting to the negative teens for a few weeks in January, it would be costly :(

Here's a website that explains a lot about flasking orchid seed for people that do it at home. Obviously doing it in a lab or with the proper equipement like a laminar flow hood is ideal, but most people don't have access to those sort of things. I used this website a lot when I flasked seed for the first time last fall.
Home Orchid Flasking
As for info on OB, have a look at the propagation forum, there's tons of stuff there, on techniques, medium and personal experiences.

Perfect perfect! Thank you for the link! It will be helpful, as I don' have a flow hood (or even know what one is) ;) so this will be helpful to read up on. I did see one post on the propagation forum that posted a series of deflasking photos, SO awesome! I love photo tutorials ;)

Thanks again!