Calanthe seed
Erik Van Lennep (Mon, 23 Oct 2017 09:56:37 PDT)

Sorry, but the surest approach does indeed involve test tubes, but there's
bound to be a few folks in BC who could help you out.

If the seed pod has started to yellow, best to clip it off, and bring it
indoors, fold it into a clean piece of paper or put it into a paper
envelope where it can finish ripening, dry out and open. The seeds will be
like dust, so it's essential to keep them from blowing away or getting too
dirty.

If it's still bright green, you may be able to find someone who can do a
"green pod" culture from it. This is much easier and often better results
come from it as it skips the requirement for sterilizing the actual seeds.

Either way, you need to find an experienced orchid propagator with the
(basic) lab set up to do sterile culture. As I said, there is likely either
a hobbyist of an orchid nursery within your area who is set up for seed
starting and would be happy to culture your calanthe seeds for
you...possibly in exchange for a portion of the resulting plantlets. A well
fertilized pod will have far more seeds than could ever be grown
on...thousands... so you can be generous.

It's good to locate the seed service early, as they will vary in their
preference for working with dry seed versus green pods. They can advise you
more on just how to collect, store and send the seeds to them.

I'm curious: do you know which species you have?

erik

youth and elders short video <http://vimeo.com/62177578/>

http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikvanlennep/

@​Green_Heart

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On 23 October 2017 at 18:40, Sue Evanetz <sevanetz@telus.net> wrote:

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