From: Date: Thu Feb 8, 2001 8:14pm Subject: Re: [hometissueculture] How to germinate Paph. seeds Hi Dave, Germination of Paphiopedilums can vary from easy to difficult according to what you are trying to grow. Some will germinate like crazy in 6-8 weeks while some we have had germinated after 6 years in flask! Others never germinate. If you tell us what you are growing I will have a 'guess' at your possible success! Hills media will germinate Paphs but there are better media formulations around. Robert Ernst media will germinate Paphs well, and Phytomax will germinate seedlings. If you are interested in larger volumes (10litre) contact me direct as we think we have something even better developed over 8 years working with Paphs. We strongly believe that the best results are only achieved by customising a Paph specific media as these orchids requirements are different from the 'typical tropical epiphytes' media. The advice given by John Elliot to avoid coconut water is good, infact in the temperate world many thousands of Paphs are germinated without coconut additives. Though I do know in Thailand it is used in some of their general orchid formulas... though I am unsure of the specifics. Arron Hicks does advise the use of charcoal and banana in germination media for Paphs - however I do disagree with him on this point. By his own admission the Seed Bank rarely handles Paph seed, and I have seen Paphs stop dead at the protocorm stage by using banana additives. Add banana at the plantlet stage if you want to but seriously do _not_ use it at germination. This was reported by Prof RLM Pierik in the book 'In Vitro Culture of Higher Plants' (Pierik et al., unpublished results) 1987. We never use banana at any stage since it gives rise to variable results when aiming for uniformity. Green seed pod culture is sometimes adopted to save the mother plants, or dry seed. There are advantages and disadvantges to both. Some Paphs germinate better harvested in the green seed pod, while others 'benefit' from bleaching of the seed. Conventional wisdom is that Paphs germinate in the dark, infact this does not hold true of all seed crosses, as some will also germinate in the light. Best to try both - as germination in the light can be quicker! Temperatures daytime 25 degrees Centigrade, night 15 degrees Centigrade works well for most crosses. If you are trying anything unusual you may have to adapt a temperature regime to combat seasonal dormancy.... but there are no guarantees with that. Patience is a great virtue when sowing Paphs. Experience....This is based on sowing thousands of Paphiopedilum seed pods each year. Since 1993 we have been doing all the flasking for Ratcliffe Orchids - probably one of the most famous names in the world of slipper orchids and probably the greatest hybridizers around. If you have any problems or questions do not hesitate to contact me direct and I would be only to happy to help...after all anything to help raise more Paphs! Regards Alan L Winthrop TQPLlab@a...