Propagation tests trials and experiments.

[Ben Belton]

I have multiple flasks of Phalaenopsis flasked in Mason jars, sterilized in a pressure cooker in P748 media. If anything I'm doing could add to your data, let me know. I'd be glad to share. I've also used Hill's media, P656, and a P668 based recipe where you add your own potato and banana.

[Tsuchibuta]

Originally Posted by Ben Belton

I have multiple flasks of Phalaenopsis flasked in Mason jars, sterilized in a pressure cooker in P748 media. If anything I'm doing could add to your data, let me know. I'd be glad to share. I've also used Hill's media, P656, and a P668 based recipe where you add your own potato and banana.

I appreciate the offer, and would love to see photos if you have them. Also it is good to know what media works with what species so that data is useful. However, the purpose of me using "professional" pre mixed tested and true media and methods (pressure cooker) is more to provide feedback in terms of viability of seed to begin with. Otherwise my alternative media and methods may work perfectly and I would never know because i just had bad seed. (Also I don't want to be a total failure. )

That being said, if you want to also try one of the alternative methods or media in conjunction with your tried and true method. That would be most appreciated. I only ask that you take as many photos at each step as possible and document as much as possible.

[ronaldhanko]

Eager to see the results of this - very interesting.

[camille1585]

This is going to be one massive, massive and amazing experiment! I hate to be a party pooper, but if you want your experiment to be scientifically sound, you need to test each media in each vessel with each sterilization procedure. And you would need at least 10 replicates of each (6 if you really push the limits) if you want do conduct a proper statistical anaylsis. That represents hundreds and hundreds of flasks! And ideally all with the same seed.

If scientific rigor is important to you (ie, do you want reliable, accurate results) I recommend that you reduce your number of factors and possibly treatments as well.

I would maybe leave out the soda bottles, I don't know how they will react to a pressure cooker, and even the microwave (softening/melting, leaching of toxic chemicals that may affect germination) . Same with the plastic vessels, unless you know it's microwave safe plastic. There is a reason why plastic flasks are made of autoclavable plastic. Everyone has access to glass jars of some sort, so perhaps the experiment should be primarily focused on sterilization techniques, and eventually different media.

But otherwise, what a neat idea, we hear of all these techniques but no idea how they compare to one another!

[Tsuchibuta]

Unfortunately every pod has a finite about of seed and thus can on be thinned so much. So my thought is to sow seed from one pod on both the premade media using the mainstream autoclave/ pressure cooker method, and then sow the same seed on at least one other alternative media, etc. The more seed a pod or sample has then of course the larger redundancy I can establish as well. Over time a pattern should be established. It may take some time but I have a few long Canadian winters to experiment during.

In reference to the plastic. The deli containers are Polypropelene and are both pressure cooker/ autoclave as well as microwave safe. <= this method is also well tested by large propagation labs already so I know that it works. The soda bottles I do not intend to heat those, and instead plan on sterilizing the media then transferring the media to the sterilized soda bottle (I brew a lot of cider and am fairly confident in my bottle sterilization process) or trying Roby's gas sterlizing method to sterilize the internal container. Soda Bottles equal free and really clear and easily recycled after use so a win win in my book.

[Tsuchibuta]

Those that want to follow the day to day progress of this project, I created a blog to keep track of the status of this project:
Tsuchibuta

I will also continue to update here as well. The blog just allows more day to day updates (which would be alittle excessive I feel for this thread). I will post here when significant events have been reached. i.e. 1 month after sow, contamination, germination and such.

[Tsuchibuta]

Started sowing seeds today. I flasked Trias nasuta and Eulophia andamanensis. I made flasks of P723, P658, Moulton's cornstarch media and OSP1 on sterilized coffee filters. I used a glovebox as well as the gas fumigation technique.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...Gc&output=html

[newflasker]

Congratulation! It’s fun! They’re great experiments! Many people want see how you do your experiments and they want to see your results. It’s better if your experiments draw concrete conclusions. You want to compare the performance of different media? You want to see which sterilize techniques work for orchid seeds? How material and shape of containers effect growing of orchid? If you want to compare the performance of different media, for example, you prepare several jars with different media but other factors (seed, container, sterilize techniques, etc) the same so when you report your results you can draw a concrete conclusion which medium works best. Try to reorganize your experiments. Good luck!

[Tsuchibuta]

Thanks for the interest. Yeah, I agree and am trying to subscribe to your method. I will be able to get more base results from the Eulophia and now Bletilla (thanks monstera) as will be able to try the same same of seed in more ways. Unfortunately with samples of just one pod from a small plant or less, I can only stretch so thin.

Generally I have been sterilizing the seed with the typical bleach syringe method then sowing in sterile glove box. The gas fumigation tests are then done with seed that didn't slide easily from the paper when I was filling the syringe, or when I was cleaning the syringe after seed sowing.

Ideally my base is: Mason Jar in Pressure Cooker, seed sterilized by bleach solution and sown in glove box on professional media. Everything else is icing on the cake.

Ultimately I'm hoping to come up with a good media that the good folks of the Orchid Club here in PEI will be able to make and use. Supplies are in short supply here, for example the only place to buy distilled water is Wal-Mart for petes sake. I've found a source that I can order agar agar from with free shipping in Canada, so I will likely do that as well. My professional media will have to be funneled through my folks in the US because international fedex shipping starts at $45 bucks from Phytotech, which for just a small sample is a bit cost prohibitive.

[camille1585]

You can get professional media a whole lot cheaper from the OSP Orchid Seedbank Project
I've ordered media there before, and shipping to Europe was below $10. I would guess that it's the same or cheaper to send it to Canada.