grow medium, other plants, agar - Orchid Board

BearyFaery · #1 10-05-2008, 07:25 PM

I'm about to order some seedlings to begin my growing orchids project (flowhood complete!), and I figured seedlings are a good place to start and then work backwards until I grow from seed.

A few questions we came up with.

We want to one day attempt to make our own grow medium, a question my fiance brought up, however, is whether or not any other plants grow well in the medium. Perhaps at a less expensive litmus test to see if our medium works or not.

Also, anyone have any tips on inexpensive places to get agar? We have a health foods store in the city that sells it at ridiculous prices, just trying to shop around.

Thanks in advance!

Royal · #2 10-13-2008, 05:08 PM

Hey BF, welcome. You may be able to find agar in an oriental foods market. Also, others have used different gelling agents with success. How pricey is too pricey?

To answer your first question, yes. MS medium (an old standby and industry standard) was originally developed for tobacco tissue culture. Many nursery propagated plants are cultured in this way. Variations of MS medium have been developed for carnivorous plants as well.

John · #3 10-14-2008, 01:14 PM

Hi BearyFaery, Always glad to hear someone else caught up in flasking. Can you post a picture of your flow hood? I would suggest that at least at first, you purchase media from Phytotech Labs, or Arron Hicks at the Orchid Seedbank Project. The cost isn't great and you will eliminate one of the variables when you start. Most of the media is prepackaged and PH adjusted. Good luck and keep us informed.
John

Royal · #4 10-14-2008, 01:53 PM

John, That's a good point.

BearyFaery, The plain MS medium I was talking about is P668 when looking at Phytotech's or OSP's websites. At Phytotech they do sell it both without agar, and with agar. Just make sure you get the one you need (with or without). While your ordering, you could pick up some plain agar for trying some homebrew media formulations.

ochid_nut · #5 10-28-2008, 01:58 PM

Hello! I bought my agar at a natural health food store. I once "planted" what I thought were orchid seeds in my jars of agar, and they did grow, however they grew so fast I couldn't keep up. The plants, I have no idea what they were, grew tall and spindly and ended up dying. Hope that helps.