I'm excited - my first ever flasks of Phal arrived today - deflasking? - Orchid Board

OzPhal · #1 (**permalink**) 08-26-2009, 10:26 PM

Hi everybody,

I received my first ever flasks of Phalaenopsis today:

Phalaenopsis Yu Pin Pearl
Phalaenopsis Brother Peterstar

They copped a bit of a beating in the transport and the agar has all broken up. I'm thinking i will have to deflask pretty soon sadly - i was hoping to acclimatise them a bit and deflask them in spring (I'm in Australia).

Alas things never go the way you hoped... so here's my plan of attack:

I have a small aquarium at home... I was going to put some water in the base of that with an aquarium heater in that set at 25oC (ideal situation would be a heat mat underneath the tank but i dont have one of those). Above that I was going to put a rack and I was going to deflask the seedlings, put them in individual pots with sphag, and leave a cover on the lid of the aquarium that I could move back and forth to control humidity. I was going to hang a computer fan in the tank for air circulation... thoughts? What size pot would you suggest i start with?

Any advice is appreciated...

RoyalOrchids · #2 (**permalink**) 08-27-2009, 12:23 PM

Hard to say what size pot to use without knowing the size of the plants. Potting individually is fine, but compots are just easier for the grower to manage, and the plants seem to like them. I know one Phal breeder that uses sphagnum in flats, no pots. Just one big community flat. I'd say it's just personal preference.

As for the aquarium, it sounds fine. Maybe a bit overkill. I bet they would be fine just set inside the empty aquarium and sealed up with plastic wrap. Over a period of several weeks, gradually introduce more air flow by just folding back a corner of the sealing film.

The main thing I learned from my first few flasks is to err on the dry side. I've lost more to soggy media than from dry media. They will like good humidity but keeping things too wet can spell disaster. Even though they are babies, they're still orchids and I've found that most will respond well to conditions close to that of adults. Baby them, and they'll stay babies longer.

OzPhal · #3 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 10:17 AM

Thanks RoyalOrchids, i appreciate your reply... it makes sense that if you spoil them then they will expect it

i've deflasked and i decided against individual tubes at this stage - i went with some community pots. I don't have the aquarium heater on 25oC but i do have it on low just to keep the temperature a little above what it can get down to in my house at night as its still winter here in Southern Australia (gets down to about 12oC at night) and also keep some humidity in the air as i'm not watering the seedlings yet just relying on their roots to pull the moisture out of the air.

Attached is a picture of my first ever deflasking...

I have 16 plants each of Phalaenopsis Yu Pin Pearl and Phalaenopsis Brother Peterstar seedlings are just sitting on top of the sphagnum moss at the moment

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RoyalOrchids · #4 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 10:22 AM

I don't see the picture, but it sounds like a great setup. Beware, you'll be swimming in seedlings in no time. Seedlings can be very addictive.

OzPhal · #5 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 10:35 AM

I finally got the picture to work...yeah, i think i'm already addicted to the seedlings! i have four more flasks in November

herf · #6 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 12:29 PM

OzPhal · #7 (**permalink**) 08-29-2009, 06:30 AM

Thanks Herf,

Was it that obvious that i was having troubles attaching it?

Undergrounder · #8 (**permalink**) 08-30-2009, 12:53 PM

Hi, you got your flasks off Keva? what 4 flasks are you getting in Novemeber? I got a bunch coming from him in November as well.

Your approach is pretty standard for deflasking, I did try a similar system to yours, but in the end i settled on less humidity and more watering to the roots. I know what Royal is saying about erring on the dry side, and it's easy to lose roots fast in wet sphagnum, but at the same time if you leave them too dry then the leaf tip die back can get severe. Keep us posted how it works out.

The only other thing long-term is those pots look very deep - too deep if they're full of sphag. I'd refill them at least halfway up with styrofoam chunks with the sphagnum on top. You only need an inch or two of media with flasklings, and any more can take too long to dry out.

Good luck!

OzPhal · #9 (**permalink**) 09-07-2009, 10:43 AM

Hey Undergrounder, sorry for the late reply.. yeah, i got them from Keva... how did you know? I've organised some flasks of Phal Baldans Kaleidoscope, Phal speciosa var alba and Dtps Jiuhbao Fairy 'Orchis'... i'm excited!

I've noticed what you mentioned Undergrounder about the leaf tips drying off if they get too dry and i've found that some of mine have suffered from that. I'm trying to put a little water in the bottom of the tank and allow the spaghnum in the pots to naturally wick it up and it's working quite well. I've found with the temperature in the tank and the air movement that the spaghnum dries out fairly quickly so roots being too wet isnt an issue. At the moment i have no spaghnum over the roots - they're just in community pots sitting on top of the spaghnum. I'm wondering though at what point do i take them out of the community pot and pot them individually in to 50mm pots? do i repot the seedlings in community pots and cover the roots or do i just leave them sitting on the top for a while? should i keep them in community pots but put some bark etc in rather than just spaghnum? When do i water with very light doses of fertiliser? What do i do with the brown tips that are on some of the leaves? chop them off? I've sprayed with mancozeb and also Yates Stressguard to prevent water loss...

Any advice would be appreciated...

Undergrounder · #10 (**permalink**) 09-07-2009, 12:15 PM

Because i recognised the flask names and the time of your post and i got a few from him too.. Disappointed about a few flasks in particular but the rest were OK. I've only deflasked the ones that needed urgent deflasking so i still have half a dozen left to do when i get more time.

Those speciosa albas will be nice, nice pickup.

I can't really offer any advice because I just do things very differently to you, (but then again i do things differently to most people). I think what you're doing will work ... keep the roots happy, green and growing, keep the leaves dry and that's half the battle.

I deflask straight into seedling pots (but compots are fine, i just don't use them). I deflask into straight perlite, and i let the perlite wick up water from a reservoir similar to how you're doing with the sphag. I cover the roots completely, just pot as normal. I add pebbles on top of the perlite as a top dressing just to keep the leaves dry and to limit algae forming on the wet perlite.

It's just the method that works for me. I rarely have rot problems, the media is nice and sterile and doesn't break down, growth rate is good and (those last few rubbish flasks an exception) i rarely get serious die back. I don't use fungicides.

With the dry leaf tips, oftentimes you get flasks that have big long leaves and virtually no roots (they were recently replated) and so there's not a lot you can do to stop them drying out anyway. No matter what, if you've got plants with underdeveloped root systems, you just have to expect the leaves will die back a little.. Unfortunately when you get flasks sight unseen you just open yourself up a bit to getting crap flasks occasionally.

I don't fertilise seedlings for at least 6 months. Especially in sphag. They just don't need it and you can hurt them more by overfertilising than underfertilising.