Contaminations

What are contaminations ?

If fungi or bacteria start to grow on media we call it a contamination because fungi and bacteria grow much faster than orchid seeds and will kill them soon.

 

Contaminations

What are the sources of contaminations ?

There are many different causes why contaminations can appear.

• sterilization failed
• problems in your sterile technique
• leaky caps

How do contaminations look like ?

Many contaminations can be found 3 or 4 days after flasking seeds or plantlets (e.g. nodes). Here are some markings of contaminations:

• fast growing discs on the media
• fast growing carpet (looks like thin hairs)
• Media turns white and becomes liquid

What can I do with contaminated flasks ?

It is very important to detect a contamination very soon because they can grow very fast. If you have found a starting contamination you can try to replate "clean" seeds or protocorms into other flask. When you are culturing nodes you can sterilize the node with 3% hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) for 15 minutes again and then place it on new media.
If one of your flasks is contaminated and you are not able to rescue it on the same day, you should transfer the flask to a darker and cool place because at this conditions the contamination grow a little bit slower.