Mentorship

As summer is slowly arriving, our orchids are putting on their new growth as the temps are rising and occasionally the sun peaks through the grayness. Along with this welcomed event come new diseases and pests.

Where do orchids come from? Your local Trader Joe’s, Costco maybe even a Lowe’s? That is where many of us first ran into them in our daily lives. May of these are the products of an a floral empire running vast cloning labs. But before they were clones, the plants they were selected from started off their life as a seed, the product of fertilization. This is an overview of how orchids are propagated from seed using sterile techniques. If you find yourself interested in this, the society offers classes from time to time providing hands on experience with these very techniques.

Sometimes there comes a time in a hobbyist’s career that they decide to build a greenhouse to house their ever expanding collection of orchids. Here is a presentation of my journey in building a greenhouse for my collection.

Sometimes despite all of our efforts we run into a problem with our orchids that we can’t solve. Asking our orchid community for advice is often a help, one of the other community members has likely seen the issue before and will have a helpful solution.

Growing orchids mounted may be referred to as growing on plaques, mounts, slabs, and rafts. It isn’t complicated and one of the easiest ways of growing. Like all orchids, timing is important as you want to do any readjustments of the plant when the new roots are starting to form. Moving a plant after the roots have developed will damage the roots and may set the plant back considerably or even lead to its death. As I said, I have many plants starting up for the season now, so keep an eye on your plants.

Growing orchids from seed may seem daunting, but this workshop was given to show that it is quite achievable in a home setting without elaborate or expensive equipment. All the items used were easily obtained. And while some seeds such as Paphiopedilum may take years to bloom, others such as Habenaria can be blooming within a year and a half. So don’t let the time to bloom dissuade you from trying from seed. There are several that will bloom in a reasonable time.

For those wishing to expand their lighting set up, and not finding a configuration that fits their layout, you might wish to consider making your own LED light system. I will cover all the basics, but understand there are details omitted. If you wish to know more, please feel free to contact me for further information.