Mycorrhizal fungus, I believe it's called.

When experienced people do this the germination rate is very high. In nature it is low but that is all that is needed. Also each orchid species has been living in their space for thousands of years and have adapted to survive.

Dankhara - What kind of orchid seeds did you attempt to propagate? Where did you get the seeds from? I ordered some vanilla orchid seeds online - not sure if that's what I got, though.

Here is a thread from the past that may answer some questions.

A previous thread on this subject

Spacecowmoo, I got some Vanda seeds from Chiang Mai Thailand and some Cattleya from Bali. But as you say, God only knows what I got. Because they were just specks of dust. Hahahah

A single orchid seed pod can contain millions of seeds, some plants will also have multiple flowers. So germination rates in nature can be 1 in 10 million.

Thanks James, but I was wondering why are we so careful with sterile environment when in the wild there are so many contaminants and it works.

The thing is, in nature it doesn't work billions of times more than it does work.

The sterile environment increases the number of seeds that will germinate. Also in nature the seeds are scattered by the wind over a wide area and I think can survive a while waiting on a fungus. In a flask a single spore can wipe out all of the seed

Hi

When I went to Costa Rica I wanted to see that in nature . Not nearly as easy as it sounds . First most of them are way up in the trees particularly the ones I wanted to see. Cattleya.. I visited at a bad time none were in flower and it took binoculars to see the leaves . Second even in dry forrest they were completely surrounded by other growth,ferns vines and a gazillion types of mosses. not to mention the leaves from the trees and bromeliads.. I did finally find one easily 4 feet wide and less tha.n 10 feet above the trail >I risked life and limb to climb the tree (have you ever seen the list of venomous snakes spiders scorpions wasps etc etc lol). I did get to look down in the crown definitely catt I suspect skinneri but no flowers . I counted at least 30 species of plants growing on around through and I could not I>D most of them!! many many individuals that I suspected MIGHT be sprouts but not sure if orchids

I'm extremely hampered by the fact I've only seen two types in seedling stage but I couldn't identify beyond Plant lol

My scientific adventure was abruptly ended when a troop of monkeys threw fruit at me And last by wife who yelled "Get the hell out of that tree before you get bitten." Monkeys don't scare me but wife does!! gary

Gary! Too funny.

Love this story!

Jane

Long time ago, when sterile labs weren't available, orchidists used one interesting method of germinating seeds on mother plant. It worked against all odds. I think you can still find a picture on the Internet of Rynchostylis roots with tiny plantlets on them.

Jane

The lists for Costa Rica 1400/1700 species of orchids alone !! In my minds eye I'm thinking there must be dozens on every tree maybe thousands lol

There just might be but actually seeing them was a real challenge. Of course you can go to the reserves and they happily show you many orchids but then you find out they were all planted .

I even hired a guide and went to the huge park in the Talmanca mountains that straddles the border into Panama. Magnificent in every sense of the word except for orchids . At the camp I asked about orchids and they showed me some Dends and Vandas attached to a palm !!! When I finally got across that I wanted to see wild orchids growing naturally They closed the border because of the US invasion of Panama !! In revenge I stole some seeds of a Geonoma palm which I ID as the very rare "Stained glass" variety. Brought them home germinated them and guess what all are of the very ordinary green variety!!!

I did get to see many Morpho butterflies even some I think were M. rhetenor !!

A family of Tapirs that scared the hell out of me . Most memorable the gazillions of Hummingbirds in a endless array of colors and forms and what I believe was a Resplenant Quetzal in full color for 3 seconds lol Incredible tree fern forests and what I believe were Gunnera of some kind .They called them "Poor mans umbrella" Orchids in the buff ,a total bust!!! lol gary

Thanks Gary!

If you go to Singapore you will see lots of "Singapore Orchids" from all over the world.

A good time to see orchids in a rain forest is after a severe storm and there will be bits and pieces of orchids on the forest floor.

Never saw any on a motoring trip around England and most "tropical houses anywhere" are very sadly lacking in orchids. And a very famous orchid grower here complained that it took him many trips to the USA before he saw an orchid growing in the wild.

Back to the topic...and the millions of seed in a pod. Well some orchid plants are large and have large pods.

My orchid growing buddy always sends his pods to a professional. so to get the best results, step 1 is to record record the date of the crossing so that the pod can be harvested at the optimum time. This duration varies from Genera to Genera.

So you raise the pod and send it away and you will get back maybe half a dozen flasks, that means hundreds of little babies to raise to maturity. Not a problem for tiny orchids, a big problem for say a standard Cymbidium

Wonder if anyone knows how long from making the cross to first flowering for Phalaenopsis? They are supposed to be fairly quick.

Hi

If the purpose of raising from seed is to get new varieties ?? If so many nurseries sell unflowered crosses in several forms then you would have the advantage of knowing the parentage yet still have the surprise of first flowering?? I've never had the patience for seeds except for palms ,in that case I save a ton of money!! For orchids I'm always price shopping so usually get smaller named offsets Old varieties of course but new to me?? lol gary

Arthurm

There are supposedly 40 species of orchids native to florida . Have seen 6

only one in the buff and that required a guided tour.lol Have a long standing invitation to visit Colombia even the Chaco canyon area with a native !! Was always hesitant because of the war and got constant warnings about the N. parks The war is over but afraid my mountain climbing days are over

Hesitated too long and got old lol gary