What you need to know about growing orchids from seed at home?
Undoubtedly, growing orchids from seeds will serve as a test for the breeder of these wonderful creatures. It's like taking a skill improvement test: having grown a strong and healthy flower means you are a master of the highest level. It would seem, what could be easier than planting a seed in the ground? The fact is that the land is not used at all.
Fragile flowers
To make the orchid feel at home, it is necessary to recreate a rainforest climate with high humidity and moderate heat. This is difficult, therefore the most undemanding orchids grow in the apartments of Russians. But even hardy phalaenopsis can not be propagated at home by every grower. First you need to dig up knowledge, practice will begin later.
Advice
Many flower lovers order planting material from China. The photographs should be examined: real seeds look like a feather cloud, individually they can only be distinguished using a magnifying glass. If something large flaunts in the image, then at best a lilac iris will grow out of it.
A tiny seed is deprived of a supply of nutrients for the development of the embryo, as nature ordered. It compensated for the low survival rate with several million seeds that ripen in one orchid. A gust of wind blows a dusty cloud through the jungle: some fall to the ground and die, others descend on the vines and get a chance to survive. According to the type of nutrition, plants are classified by botanists as saprophytes - organisms that feed on organic matter that accumulate in the soil.
Home laboratory for orchid production
For orchid embryos to start growing, the seeds are placed in an environment with sufficient polysaccharides. For the base, growers always choose a colloidal agar-agar solution that is able to maintain sterility.
To a 1.5% solution add:
- fructose, sucrose, glucose (about 2% of the total weight);
- salts with cations of manganese, iron, potassium, magnesium;
- salts, the anions of which are phosphates, sulfates, nitrates.
Since the embryo does not have a protective layer, the main condition for growing is sterility. Specialty stores sell flasks with ground-in lids - they make excellent seed incubators. You can sterilize the dishes with a pressure cooker, but an autoclave or oven is best. Usually half an hour at 135-140 ° C is enough.
Now you need to sterilize the seeds. A proven 10% calcium hypochlorite solution is commonly used. The planting material is soaked for an hour, shaking occasionally. A grate is placed on a wide pot of boiling water, and seeds are prepared on the table next to it.
In order for the orchid to bloom in five years, you need to perform the following manipulations very quickly and without shaking your hands.
- Pick up some seeds with a soft plastic brush.
- Tilt the nutrient solution flask.
- Bringing the brush through the steam, brush it over the jelly-like solution.
- Stopper the flask immediately.
- Place the flask in a warm, bright place.
In a couple of weeks, green spots of sprouts will appear on the surface of the transparent nutrient medium. The seedlings will begin to grow, forming roots and leaves. To contemplate this fascinating action at home for several months is a great pleasure.
But now the small orchids have finally taken shape, it's time to plant them for permanent residence. Flower roots respond positively to additional lighting, so a transparent pot is the best option. A mixture of pieces of tree fern, moss and bark is placed on the bottom.
Advice
Gardeners scald pieces of wood with boiling water. Experts advise not to do this - it is time for young orchids to get used to the aggressive environment of the surrounding world, the time comes for acquiring immunity.
Distilled water is carefully poured into the vessel with the seedlings along the wall and the flask begins to rotate around its axis. Thus, the roots are freed from the adhering substrate. Rubber plugs are put on the ends of the long tweezers and, taking care not to damage the seedlings, place them on the potting mixture. It remains to wait a few years to fully enjoy the flowering.
Decent care for rare flowers
For orchids, daylight hours should last half a day, they are connoisseurs of soft diffused lighting. If the day begins to shorten, fluorescent lamps should be connected. The leaves of the plant are a kind of indicator for measuring the amount of sunlight. If they are green with a soft gloss, the lighting is perfect. Light green, elongated - poor lighting, flowering will not come.
Most of these flowers feel comfortable at home at a temperature of 22-24 ° C. When it rises, you should not worry, you will have to water and spray the plant more often. But a decrease to 14 ° C is already critical, urgent measures must be taken. Watering is strictly prohibited due to the risk of root rot.
Watering delicate flowers is necessary in moderation, it is better to underfill water than to arrange a swamp. After the procedure, it is better to leave the pot to drain in the sink. A couple of times a day, the orchid needs to be moistened with a spray bottle without affecting the peduncle with buds. Water for irrigation and soft shower should be settled, without a large amount of mineral salts.
Advice
If it turned out to bathe the plant in the late afternoon, then you need to remove excess moisture from the leaves with a dry cloth.
Orchids are indifferent to fertilizers. If the substrate is not two years old, then the amount of minerals will be enough. But if a decision is made to feed, then fertilizers should be exclusively for representatives of the Orchid family. It is worth making feeding no more than 1-2 times a month.
They fall in love with an orchid at first sight. The plant is quite dangerous - many lovers of various flowers no longer collect them in a collection, but are exclusively engaged in orchids. Their kitchens are like laboratories. They will grow from seeds even the most delicate hybrid.
Growing orchids at home is now much easier. Flower shops sell seeds, substrates, graceful pots, and mineral fertilizers. You don't need to invent anything - everything is already in stock, you only need enthusiasm and a little patience. And then the prospect will open one day to wake up in the middle of a magnificent garden.
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