Orchids

 Hello everyone,

Spent most of yesterday sorting out my orchids, all 25 of them.

Two of my phalaenopsis plants are now 'married'!  I tried to move one of
them to groom and water it, but it was joined to another phal. pot by a
strong root bridge.  Trying to decide which root had invaded which pot
was difficult, because each end of the 'bridge' root is strong and
thickened, as if it had arisen at *both* end!  At roughly mid-point
along the root, there is an area which is narrower and this has a
slightly browned ring of damaged tissue, such as occurs when a root is
flexed too much.  For the time being, I am leaving them connected (which
complicates watering/draining processes), but am contemplating whether
or not to snip them apart in the future.  Has this happened with anyone
else?  If so, how did you proceed?

Also, a had a seed pod develop on my Paphiopedilum (maudiae type) some
weeks back.  Since it was, at last, dry and apparently ripe, I opened it
yesterday and extracted the wierd dusty seed.  For better or worse, I
have sown the seed on a layer of gritty sand over a bed of damp orchid
mix.  I popped a plastic bag over it and put it in the dark in my airing
cupboard.  Fingers are now crossed.  I would be most interested in any
comments/anecdotal information from anyone who has tried this, or simply
knows more than I do (not too tricky then).

I shall look in again after my dental appt. tomorrow.

TIA.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

 "Spider"  wrote .

Orchid seed contains little or no food so the germinating seed needs food
immediately to enable growth, in the wild it forms an association with a
fungus which enables it to develop but it can be done with a sterile medium
in a test tube and there are various formulations for that. Another way it
to use old orchid compost which hopefully will have the right fungus present
and will enable some seeds to develop.
I found this which looks helpful....
http://www.users.on.net/~gmcorbin/BOS/Articles/Orchids%20From%20Seed.html
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

 On 18/09/2011 23:14, Bob Hobden wrote:

Thanks for the link, Bob.  Unfortunately, atm, I get an error message.
Not sure if the site is off-line or the link is incorrect.  I will try
again later.

Your comments about fungi/food requirements for the potential seedlings
are most interesting. I have a phalaenopsis which needs potting down, so
I could use the old compost from that *unless* you think I'd be better
off with ex-paph compost.  I do have a second paph which is not in
flower and, I suppose, I could transfer some seed to its compost.
However, if I did, I would not be able to put this plant in the dark of
the airing cupboard.  However, that may still be more successful than
darkened-but-starved culture.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

 "Bob Hobden"  wrote ...

What might be worth trying is sprinkling some "Rootgrow" over your pots,
it's a mycorrhizal fungi for the treatment of trees when planting (used it
on my cherries) but it might just work with orchid seed. Not too expensive
so worth a try.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

 On 19/09/2011 22:50, Bob Hobden wrote:

Oooh .. thanks for that thought, Bob.  Can't get any today, but will
google for now to see what I can learn. Thanks.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay