| De Flasking Orchid Seedlings |
| What do I do with the flask? |
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Orchid de flasking in the home can be fun. The only snag with this route is the delay you are going to encounter before seeing your first orchid blooms, this is well worth the wait though as there's nothing better than the anticipation of seeing what you've got from your flasks.
Now you have an idea of what to expect, it's time to look at what else is involved once you have made your purchase. Some orchids are better than other for beginner and these include Phalaenopsis (moth orchids), Cattleyas (chocolate box orchids) and some Paphiopedilums (slipper orchids).
Removal Process
The basic principle for de-flasking is provided here with any deviations from it being given with each genus shown below.
Young plants are no different from anything else that is young in that they require a little more attention than the adult equivalents but will reward you as a result. The process for de-flasking your plants involves CAREFULLY removing your babies from their protective environment by firstly standing the container in warm water - NOT HOT! - this will help loosen the nutrient jelly that they are growing in. After standing your flasks in warm water for between 10 - 15 minutes the gel will have become soft and if the jar or container is tilted often they will simply slide out. If you have plants which refuse to come from the containers then it may become necessary to give the jar a sharp knock on a hard surface covered in something soft like a towel, this will cause the jelly to break in to small sections and they will then slide out much easier. Sometimes they are so tight in the flask hat it may be necessary to CAREFULLY break the jar to remove the plants, if this is the case then wrap the flask in thick paper or cloth and firmly but using control hit the jar around the bottom edge hard enough to break it but not so hard as to cause the hammer to continue the motion and flatten your precious plants!.
Whichever method you use to extract the plants they should be placed in a shallow dish containing tepid clean water, this will help you to separate the roots without breaking them. Once you have the plants out of their flask and the roots are separated they should be washed with a fungicide such as Captan which is effective but not harsh on the young plants. Do not use a systemic type fungicide as this will be too strong for the tiny plants and may cause them to die. Any dead or damaged roots should be removed at this stage to prevent rotting and possible infection which can also kill your plants.
Potting Process
Newly de-flasked plants should be planted in to communal trays as this will help keep the atmosphere around them more buoyant that it would be if planted in to individual pots, it will also help keep the compost evenly moist and less prone to drying out. You should use a fine grade compost or a special seedling compost to start off your plants by making shallow depressions in to the surface of the compost just deep enough to take the roots without having to bend them which could cause them to break. The aim is to have the finished planted seedling with the base of the stem or first bulb sitting in the surface of the compost, do NOT allow the bases of the stems or bulbs to be buried otherwise rotting may occur. After gently watering in your seedlings they will need to be kept in a higher than normal humidity and temperature to allow the young plants to acclimatize to their new surroundings. You can achieve this higher humidity by placing the tray in to a propagator, these can be bought from most garden centres for just a few pounds. After 3 to 4 weeks you should see new signs of growth either in new root formation or top growth. If at any time you see that there are plants that have died or that show signs of disease they should be removed IMMEDIATELY to prevent the problem spreading to the healthy plants.
After 18 to 26 weeks your plants should be established sufficiently to be planted out in to their own pots and once again kept is a shady humid conditions for a couple of weeks. If you are growing epiphytic (grow in trees) or lithophytic (grow on rocks) plants then this is a good time to mount them on whatever you have chosen by placing them on a bed of moss or other moisture retentive material such as rockwool. These plants will quickly establish a root system to anchor themselves to their new support.
Your new plants will now take between 12 months and 4 years to reach a flowering size, this is dependant on the genus you have chosen.
Phalaenopsis |
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Phalaenopsis are by far the easiest orchid for the beginner to start with as they grow rapidly from seedlings or mericlones in to flowering sized plants, this process can be as short as 12 to 15 months with some varieties although most will flower after 18 months from being de-flasked. Phalaenopsis seedlings like higher than normal humidity and temperatures for a few weeks after de-flasking and provided you can provide these conditions you can expect a very high degree of success.The flask opposite contains a single young Phalaenopsis plant ready for de-flasking.
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Odontoglossum's and types
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| Odontoglossum's and their related species and hybrids are another good orchid for the beginner to attempt.
These plants grown rapidly and the standard process described above can be followed, it should be noted though that although they grow well you should expect quite a few not to survive. This is not really a problem as most types are sold with flasks that contain quite a few seedlings more than the normal and so this loss is reflected in the quantity within the flask. - see opposite.
You should still bear this in mind though otherwise you may be disheartened seeing them die so readily.
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| Paphiopedilums |
| Another good starter plant that can easily be grown on to flowering size within about 3 years. Although the plant is quite easy to grow on from the flask and the standard de-flasking process can be performed, they do tend to be slow at getting going once potted in to communal trays. These plants may seem to have stopped growing for anything up to 5 months after replanting, but be patient as they WILL start growing. |
| Cattleyas and Laelias |
| These plants are usually sold in flasks of 4 to 8 plants and are very tough little cookies! Follow the standard process as described above and you can expect these to flower after 3 years depending on variety or species chosen. |
| Orchid De Flasking Workshop |
| Orchid de flasking photo workshop. Here we are de-flasking some Cattleya jenmanii, a species from Venezuela which will eventually bear blooms in lavender pink with a deeper pink/purple lip veined with yellow/orange. We hope! naturally from Venezuela. |
| The first thing we need to do is soak the flask in some warm water - NOT HOT - which will soften the nutrient jelly the plants are growing in. See below |
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After soaking for 5 - 10 minutes the jelly will have softened sufficiently for it to be slid out of the jar.
If you have any resistance put a towel on the work surface and give the jar a firm but controlled wrap on the toweled surface, this will cause the jelly to fragment and it can then easily be slid out in sections.
You should be left with a disk of jelly (or broken pieces of jelly) with your plants still in tact! see below
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| Now you have removed them from their miniature greenhouse you will need to remove the jelly from around the roots so you can inspect them for damage or disease.
Carefully place the young plants and the jelly disk in to a shallow dish of TEPID water and gently tease the plants from the jelly. see left
You you should place the plants on a clean surface to carefully inspect them and remove any damaged or diseased roots, it is better to remove any that are damaged as this can prevent infection from the rotting root and spreading to the rest of the plant.
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You should prepare a tray or pots of compost ready to receive your baby plants by making depressions in the surface see right, make as many depressions as you have plants. Give the tray a good watering to get some moisture in to it, do not use any fertilizer at this point as it may burn the delicate roots.
Put the tray to one side whilst you apply a gentle fungicide (such as Captan) to the plants which will prevent disease from affecting the young plants which will be weakened temporarily by the de-flasking. Do not use a strong systemic fungicide as this will be too strong for the plants and will probably kill them.
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| Carefully lower your plants in to the shallow depressions you made earlier making sure you don't have to bend or force the roots in to the compost, if you have to use force you may break the fragile roots and this can lead to infection and the loss of the plant. See right
Make sure that the base of the plant or the base of the tiny bulb is sitting on the surface of the compost and is not buried in it as this will cause it to rot at the base and will spread up and kill the plant.
Carefully firm the compost around the plants roots applying just enough pressure to hold them steady.
Continue the process until all your plants are in the compost
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Place your trays or pots of plants in a shady and humid part of the greenhouse. Since the plants are only small you can use a basic propagator which costs just a few pounds to help maintain a higher than normal humidity around the plants for their first few weeks. see left
Gradually over a period of 4 weeks you can open the vents in the propagator or if it has none you can prop up one end to allow air to circulate. This air movement will hardened the bulbs and prevent any fungal diseases from spreading through the pot. see below
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Your plants can now be moved in to lighter conditions, but not where they will be subject to direct sunlight otherwise scorching may occur.
After a further 20 weeks or so you can pot the seedlings up in to their own pots or in our case the plant is naturally Epiphytic and so we will be mounting them on either wood or cork bark.
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You can expect (we can expect) our Cattleya jenmanii to be flowering size in about three years.
left: This seedling (25 12 01) is from the same batch and is going strong, as you can see new leaves have formed and there are two in the pot.
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The above method is the 'standard' way of dealing with plants that have been de-flasked, however, we like to try things a little and as there are twelve in the flask we are going to mount two on to cork rather than potting them on first. This is purely an experimental procedure and you should follow the guidelines above.
Here we have followed the instructions above and have washed and removed the broken or rotten roots and given a coating in Captan (fungicide) to prevent any infection.
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After placing the moss in the crevice we are gently putting the roots in to depression we have created to take them.
You will note that we haven't attempted to wire it in place as it's far too small, the roots should penetrate the moss and will grab hold of the bark to secure it in place (we hope!)
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We have mounted the plants on to quite a large piece of bark - see above - as we want to keep them in place without being disturbed for quite a few years. We are attempting to grow these two plants as naturally as possible and so this means no root disturbance.
We have found a crevice it the bark to which we are using a dibber to push in some damp sphagnum moss to hold moisture. see right
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DE FLASKING
