cloning
 

I think I would like to try cloning the Phrag. that was awarded at the orchid show. What is the fastest way...seeds, meristeming or ??? Thanks for the help....Jean

PS...maybe I only THINK I want to do this....lol

vjo:
Often Phrag's will put up offshoots and these are probably the best way to get a new plant. With seeds, you can cross it with itself, but the results will not be identical to the parent. Meristem will give you close (although not always identical) varieties, and this is faster than seeds, but not that much.
Good question, I wish I had a good answer. Can you purchase another sibling perhaps? It would be a good one to cross with itself if it is awarded, and you may get an even better offspring variety, but you will have to raise A LOT of seedlings to maturity to be able to tell which ones are worth keeping. Meristem will give you very close offsprings, but again, you will have to raise a LOT of clones to maturity to find out which ones are award worthy. I have seen a lot of clones that look little or nothing like the parent plant, so this is not a guarantee that you will get an identical plant -again - offshoots will produce the same plant unless they mutate, which is rare. You might try keiki paste on the stem to induce an offshoot, but that is not always successful.
Best of luck - let us know what you decide!
Steve

I am sure I remember being told at a Society meeting that Phrags and Paphs can't be mericloned.
Also - I don't think that they can be stem-propagated either.
I am sure somebody here will put me right if I am wrong ! :D
Basically you are left with divisions and seed propagation.
The former is faster than the latter, but with the latter you can get more plants...
I selfed a paph recently, I would encourage you to self yours........or go along to a nursery, spot a nice phrag and ask them for a pollen donation !
I am not sure if your's is a species, but if so and you self it, then there are places that will take the pod and flask it free ( read the fine print )

I have always heard that Paphs. and I believe Phrags can not be mericloned as orchidsarefun mentioned. Dividing it as it produces multiple fans is likely the best way to get fast results.

You learn something new everyday! I did not know that paphs and phrags cannot be mericloned, but it doesn't surprise me that some orc's are not clone-able - nothing about orchids surprises me any more. Again, if you can get it to form an offshoot, or should it throw one on it's own, you can get the same orchid, and the shoots will grow much faster than seedlings. I am not sure that keiki paste will work on them either, I was just throwing out all the options I could think of - they may not respond to it at all.
Again - best of luck! Keep us updated!
Steve

Jean, what's the goal of cloning yours? Cloning of paphs and phrag is possible scientifically (you can easily find scientific papers about this in google scholar). But I've heard that it does not make sense commercially at this point.

actually the person who told us recently is a well-known paph and phrag judge and said that the main reason these 2 are so costly is because they cannot be mericloned.
I must check at Hausermann's when I am there next as their tags indicate whether the plant is a mericlone or from seed. Someone there should also know...

I was thinking about it because so few of these have an AM that I thought maybe I could raise a little (or a lot) of money selling them. I know I can divide it but they aren't the fastest growing plants I've ever had. I didn't know they couldn't be mericloned so that leaves seed prop. That all sounds like it would take too long. Don't think I would live long enough to enjoy the fruits of my labor...lol
Sooo thanks for the info.
By the way it is a nitidissimum- cross of caudatum x
conchiferum. ...Jean