We have limited number of Flasks, of the following crosses offered for sale !, June/19/09

All seedlings are approximately 35- 50 mm high in flask and growing well!

Please add £4 postage to order for 1-3 flasks.

Plants will be large enough to grow on, unless specified!

Please check for availability !

For countries that require a Phytosanitary certificate the cost is approximately £23.00.

DEFLASKING YOUR PLANTS

You have just purchased a flask of baby orchids ,Good idea! and now your getting slightly scared of what to do with it next. Well it has proberly been on a bit of a journey to reach you, Did it get cold? or too hot? if they arrived all shook up and covered in media they will have to come out immediately. Best thing to do is to take no chances and deflask them right away if you have the right conditions, The conditions being ;

1 Temperature 70-75, CONSTANT! 24/7

2 High humidity! 24/7

3 Good growing media!

Temperature; if you have purchased the flask you should be serious about the outcome of what you are doing and what you hope you will achieve.  So to achieve this you will have to invest in some kind of heated tray or make one. Temperature is very important too cold and they will all die very quickly with fungal problems too hot and they will desiccate 70-75 is about right, you can grow most Genera at these temperatures until they get to their first bulb and growth then they can then go their own separate ways. Heavy condensation on the wall of the flask indicates that the flask may be to cold, the reverse is also true. The flask usually has a breathe hole in the lid this is there to allow  some gas -air exchange within the flask but if temperatures are too far apart 70-80  within the growing area this could draw in fungal nasties. To solve this problem in my own growing area under lights, i grow with the lights on at night in summer to combat the heat of the day plus the lights. I now have natural summer heat in daylight hours, and heating plus lights night-time, this makes for a more even temperature 24/7.

High Humidity Not a problem if you follow the instructions and pictures

Good Growing media;

If you purchase your flask at a Show or similar buy yourself a small package of New Zealand Sphagnum moss!

Time to take the plants out, if they are in a glass container you will need to break the glass, wrap it well in paper and break the bottom as gentle as you can. pick the plants out of the mess  as carefully as you can, a length of bent wire like a Shepherds hook is very handy at this point, and drop them into some fairly warm water, wash the media off using a small paint brush or similar they are now ready to plant up, A lot of flask suppliers now use honey jars with large diameter screw off lids to simplify things with no glass breaking!

Pre wet your moss and squeeze out the excess water, fluff up the moss and half fill your chosen container. gently lay out your plants one by one on the surface and place a strand or two of moss across the roots to hold them in place when you have finished check that you have only a very small amount of moss covering the roots (see picture) then put on lid, Place in growing area and check every day, for the first week! Water gently as required. If you have to remove any tissue use a very sharp sterile blade and use Cinnamon on the cut edge. Fungal or bacterial problems use Cinnamon or Hydrogen Peroxide 3%

Don't bury the roots deep into the compost because they may rot! These roots where grown is a saturated sugar solution and are basically, structurally, different to normal roots so the object is to keep your plants in a good growing situation whilst the plants set about growing proper roots, 2-6 months, so patience is needed. when the plants start to root up and they have two or three 2" roots they can be potted up individually but still keep up the same temperature and humidity otherwise the plants will 'Go Back', the idea is to keep pushing them on! See Pictures Below!

Good Growing!