Advice on deflasking Chiloschista please

[IWishIWasAFrog]

Hi All,

Newbie here, hope I'm on the right forum... and this is likely to be long, sorry!

Anyway, bought 2 flasks at the weekend market in Bangkok a week ago. Thought I would start off with something easy like Phalaenopsis, as growing on is a first for me... I ended up buying a flask of Cattleya and a flask of Chiloschista Viridiflora... BUT, when I startd researching the chilo's when I got back, they did not remotely resemble the adult plants that the stallholder pointed out!

The Catts are beautiful strong, healthy plants (about 50), but I am really worried about the Chilo's. There is about 50 or so plants in the flask, a tangle of roots, and some roots has started to turn yellow and translucent, if that makes sense. It was very hot on the day, about 38 C, I carried them around flat in a padded bag, but are worried that they were injured somehow.

Would you recommend:
-using a heated propagator?
-using a fungicide?
-dipping in a weakend rooting hormone solution?
-spagnum moss ok? or very fine bark?
-would it be ok to leave some agar on the roots, would not want to damage them.
-should I remove the yellow/translucent roots?

Or should I stop worrying and just get on with it!

Any advice on deflasking would be much appreciated!

[CoolPhrog]

I'm looking forward to any answers you get on this thread. I deflasked a batch and it went terribly wrong...lost every plant and there were 40 in the flask.....good luck!

[lambelkip]

don't know what you mean by a heated propagator, but they should be kept at a fairly constant temperature, with high humidity and bright, indirect light. sudden changes in environment can easily kill the seedlings, and you can expect many of them to die just because you brought them home.
absolutely do not use a rooting hormone. it's generally a bad idea for seedlings of any kind. I would skip the fungicide too, but that's really up to you.
never put a chiloschista in a pot. the roots should be exposed to the light at all times. this generally means mounting directly on cork. no sphagnum or fine bark. rinse the agar off, you want to remove as much of it as possible, since it can easily grow bacteria or fungus. do not remove any dead roots or leaves.
good luck. I have one survivor out of a flask of 40, it is nearly blooming size now.
it might be a good idea to post pictures as well, so people can get a better idea of the condition the plants are in.

[rastafouni]

As Lambelskip wrote, it might be a good idea to post pict. Sometimes at Jatuchak (week end market) they sell flasks who don't need to be deflasked straight away. To keep them longer in the bottle may help seedlings to adapt to the new environment.