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BP SPECIES NEWSLETTER May 2005
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  WHATS NEW ?
Culture.   Sowing Orchid Seed.

In FLASK.  Spathoglottis species affinis plicata "Magenta" Photo Right 
Dendrobium ochreatum  Phalaenopsis aphrodite  Laelia lobata alba
 
In PLANTS.  Aerides quinquevulnerum purpureum. Vanda teres var andersoneae  Renanthera isosepala
 
Ready to replate.   Some African and Madagascan species
Aerangis biloba  Aerangis ellisii   Aerangis distincta  Aeranthes grandiflora  Angraecum diderii  "Erika"  Angraecum leonis Comoro  Angraecum magdalenae var latilabellum  Angraecum scottianum

Orchid Auction. Busy auction site for Plants, Flasks, Books. Sell, buy and find your treasures.
Flasking supplies, medias, nonabsorb cotton wool. Notes on flasking.

Seed for sale.  Email  now for a list of available species orchid seed. Conservation by propagation.
Phytosanitary Certificates, Exdoc, Bank Fees. .

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USA Phytos & Permits. 
Flasks on hand, ready to go.   Click for emailed list of species flasks that can be shipped NOW.
Did you know?   Phyto news, electronic generated Phytosanitary Certificates. Worldwide exchange of seed and protocorm. Permits USA.  Bank Fees, hidden costs. Phytos for other countries.
http://www.speciesorchids.com/  Web Site. Full descriptions of species  flasks and plants plus photographs. Details on ordering, shipping and cultural notes.Links to other interesting sites. Articles on culture, habitat and notes about orchids.
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 Humour.
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Requests. Click here for  Flask List   Plant List  New Germinations  Flasks Ready to go.
It is our policy to avoid spam, so lists are sent on request.
 Photos in this edition.  Top;  Spathoglottis species affinis plicata Magenta
Highlighted species or subjects  are links to photos/articles. Just click on the subject.
Important Note;  Due to high Bank fees, we recommend the use of Western Union transfers when
sending international payments. It is quick and secure. Electronic Funds Transfer by Bank is also quick
and secure, but check Bank fees for the service.
When sending payments internationally, use  REGISTERED  airmail letters or document envelopes and  NOT large packets or padded bags which may be opened by Customs for inspection.

 Items in this Newsletter may be reproduced provided source acknowledged. Do you know any orchid growers who may like to receive this newsletter? Why not forward this email to them now!
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For information or prices click here or email Steve at steve@orchidsonline.com
Steve is looking for Orchid Society and Orchid Nursery Information to include on his site.
If you can help, why not visit his website at http://www.orchidsonline.com.au/ and fill in the online form now.
.
New in Flask.
 Spathoglottis species affinis plicata."Magenta"  Large  deep magenta flowers. Terrestrial. This may have originated from New Guinea. It is a spectacularly coloured species that grows easily in a composted soil media in a bright sunny position.
Dendrobium ochreatum. Clusters bright orange, large flowers on an unusual plant that has thick curved pseudobulbs. An Indian species, requiring a small pot or a slab of treefern or similar. A deciduous species requiring a dry rest in winter.
Phalaenopsis aphrodite. Flowers to 7 cm. This is a very robust species and will develop into a large plant. The flowers are a clean pure white and plants like a slotted pot or basket such as used for the other large growing phalaenopsis.
Laelia lobata Alba.  A large growing Cattleya like plant, this needs a large basket or shallow pot for good drainage. A robust grower, fertiliser and water when the new leads appear will produce heads of quite spectacular flowers that have a beautiful sparkling texture. Type form L.lobata
  Highlighted  species linked to photographs and cultural notes.
New in PlantsTop
 Aerides quinquevulnerum purpureum.A rare species from the Philippines, this form of Aerides quinquevulnerum has burgundy red flowers, with a spicy fragrance. The densely flowered spike has many waxy flowers on a spike to 30 cm or more, burgundy red spotted darker red. The lip is spurred, flowers about 2 cm across. Warm to intermediate grower. Flowering size plants are growing in coarse bark in slottted pots.
Vanda teres var andersoneae.  The Indian species, terete leafed, best grown on an old fence paling or piece of treefern is available. Almost full sunlight, lots of water and fertiliser, the plant can be top cut and placed back at the base of the totem to produce a clump. Warm to intermediate grower. Flowering size plants are growing on slabs of treefern.
 Renanthera isosepala. A species from Thailand that is similar to R. coccinea. Erect arching panicles of red orange flowers, spotted red. Best grown on a totem or similar as it will climb up a support. If grown in a basket, it can be top cut and the cutting placed back into the basket to form a clump. Fill the basket with large pieces of bark, charcoal, treefern or even some coconut husk or a mix of any of those. Maximum sunlight is required and it can be grown in the garden in warmer climates.
Flowering size plants are growing on slabs of treefern.
 Highlighted  species linked to photographs and cultural notes.
Ready to Replate.     Top
The African, Madagascan connection.
Aerangis biloba A dwarf, shade growing species from Africa. Small glossy green leaves, the plants do best on a mount with a little spaghnam moss under the roots. White fragrant flowers with a long spur. A small well drained pot or basket with a well drained media can also be used.
Aerangis ellisii. Stemmed type, flowers white to 5cm, spur to15cm long twisted. Culture as for A. biloba. Madagascar.
Aerangis distincta. Dwarf grower, white flwers 2.5 cm with long spur, fragrant. Heavy shade. A rare species from Africa and cultivated like A.biloba
Aeranthes grandiflora  is a Madagascan species of moderate elevation requiring a warm to intermediate climate, fairly shady with good air movement. Grows well in a small basket. Large pale green flowers on a long wiry stem.
Angraecum diderii  "Erika". Dwarf plant, large waxy white spurred flowers to 4cm. Fragrant. Does well in a very small pot or basket.
Angraecum leonis Comoro. This is a fan like plant with succulent fleshy leaves. The flowers, to 6cm, are waxy white, with a long spur. A small pot or basket is required, well drained. A shady spot, although it will accept similar  light conditions to that for Dendrobes, and excellent ventilation is required, as most Anraecoids do not like stale conditions,
Angraecum magdalenae var latilabellum. Small fan like plant. Flowers pure white, large, to 12 cm. Fragrant. Growing condition as for A leonis. Madagascar.
Angraecum scottianum  A minature terete leafed species from Madagascar. The small plants require a mount or a very small pot or basket with a well drained media. An intermediate grower, these like other Angraecoids must have good air movement as they are intolerant of wet conditions.
   Species highlighted are links to photos.
More photos at   www.speciesorchids.com/photos.html
Culture.  Sowing Orchid Seed.     Top
Aseptic in flask sowing.
Ok, so you want to grow some orchids from seed. First you will need sterile flasks with nutrient growing media in them. Knudsons C works OK, or any of the proprietary brands.
Set the pH at about pH 5.0. You may need a pH meter or test strips. Most proprietory brands come already pH adjusted.
Bottle say 80 mls per bottle, pressure cook for 15 minutes at 15 psi and let the flasks cool.
Now the difficult part!
Lets start with the easiest method.
Green Pod .
Collect your green seedpod, not too much off ripening, and put it into a small sealable bottle with some straight chlorine bleach, disinfectant, pool chlorine at 3% or more, or similar chlorine based product.
Leave it there for  20 minutes while you set up the transfer point, a box with a sheet of plastic or glass, a large plastic bag, or a clean air cabinet ( lamina flow) if money is no object.
The transfer point has to be wiped out with a diluted solution of the bleach, preferably also sprayed with a fine mist atomiser ( supermarket type is great).Wash the mother flasks in the same bleach and place them inside the now sterilised area.
Sterilise ( pressure cook) a small bottle of water with an eyedropper in it, and a scalpel or forceps wrapped in alfoil to provide a means of opening the seed pod and transferring the seed.
Place all in the sterilised area, with the pod.
Using the scalpel or forceps, open the seedpod and quickly transfer a very small amount of seed to the flask. I do two or three flasks to cover any loss, one flask is usually more than enough.
With the eye dropper, put a little sterilised water in the flask and swirl around to spread out the seed.
Remove the flask, label, and wait to see results.
The more difficult method!
DRY SEED. Chlorine
Same transfer point procedure.
The seed has to be soaked in a sterilising solution, use a small phial with a lid. After a determined time, the seed is allowed to settle, the sterilising solution poured off (decanted) and some sterilised water added to the seed and again decanted. This wash can be repeated.
Using the sterile eyedropper, add sterile water to the seed, suck up the seed and add to the flask.
Sterilising solution is a weak chlorine bleach, say 3 to 5%. To determine the time required for sterilising, some experimenting is required.
By setting up a number of phials with seed, a series of timings will determine under sterilisation thru to over sterilising and seed loss.
Start at 3 minutes, then 6, then 9, then 12, then 15.
Germination without contamination at the minimum timing is what is required. If the seed is sterilised but fails to germinate, then it may be over sterilised.
However, once the time is determined between contamination and no contamination, a finer time range can be tried.
So if there is contamination after 3 minutes, but no contaminating after 9 minutes, a range of 4 to 9 minutes can be trialled  to establish the optimum sterilising time.
DRY SEED. Hydrogen Peroxide.
With thanks to Darryl Smedley for the following
For some years now I have been using 3 Volume W/V (10%) Hydrogen
Peroxide (H2O2) to sterilize orchid seed before sowing. Its simple and
easy as its a one-step operation that doesn't require any further
washing of the seed as in chlorine-based sterilization procedures.
It works because the Hydrogen Peroxide kills the nasty contaminates
then breaks down into water and oxygen after a period. A friend has
suggested that maybe the H2O2 might only work when it decomposes into
H2O and O2 and its the nascent oxygen that does the sterilizing - don't
know.
What I would like to know is how long the process takes to convert from
H2O2 to water and oxygen?
There is a practical reason for wanting to know this as I have found
that seed sown in the evening generally has a lower germination success
rate than seed sown in the morning.
I have speculated that this is because the flasks done at night are
under the the lights for only a short period and are in contact with
the H2O2 whilst it is still 'active' for several hours until the lights
turn on again in the morning. Flasks done in the morning are under the
lights for up to 8 hours before the lights turn off at night. Presumably
the H2O2 breaks down during this period. (I once used 6 Volume H202 by
mistake and washed and re-sterilized the seeds within 15 minutes. No
good, killed them all stone dead.)
My procedures are that the seed is placed in a test tube and 2.5ml of
H2O2 is drawn up and syringed into the tube. The tube is agitated on
and off for 5 minutes then the stopper is removed and the liquid and
seed poured into the flask. The flask usually has a small quantity of
free water on top of the agar mixture - no more than 0.5 ml. The flask
is then placed under 36/37 Watt Growlights at about 18-20" from the
tube to the top of the agar. The flasking room is kept at temperatures
ranging from 17-27 deg.C.
I'm told that the stabilizer used in H202 is Phosphoric Acid but I
don't know in what proportion nor whether its presence contributes to
the sterilization in any way.
*******************
DRY SEED. Hydrogen Peroxide.
Same procedure  as for sterilising with  chlorine, but use  H2O2 diluted to say 3 volumes.
Apply the same experiment procedure.
NATURAL  Seed germination.
Orchid seed germinates in the wild when the airborne seed finds a suitable crevice which also hosts a mycorhiza fungus which infects the seed. The fungus supplies sugar for the seed to germinate.
Bearing this in mind, seed will often germinate when sprinkled around the roots of an established orchid, because the fungus is present. A method to mimic this is to prepare a pot with a media that will stay damp, but not soggy wet, and stretch a piece of terry towel over the substrate.
Collect some pieces of orchid root from an established plant and mash it up somewhat in some water and spread it over the terry towel.
In theory, this should introduce the fungus to the rough surface, so that the orchid seed can then be sprinkled over the terry towel and kept damp.
Will it germinate??
In all cases, it is recommended that a very small amount of seed is sown, so that each seedling can develop without over crowding. In this way, a mother flask may be sufficient to grow a few seedligs to a pottable size, otherwise too many seedlings require replating ( transfer and thinning out in a new flask).
  More photos at   www.speciesorchids.com/photos.html
 
Top
Your Message on the net.
If you would like to have your message sent to over 1500  ORCHID GROWERS each month via this Newsletter, contact  mailingList.html ?subject=Advert!.
See  Cals Orchids.
Very modest rates apply and YOUR page on http://www.speciesorchids.com/ can also be arranged. With in excess of 5000 visits to the website per MONTH, you can get your message to active INTERNATIONAL orchid growers 7/24.
www.speciesorchids.com/YOUR MESSAGE PAGE
 
Top
Seed of SPECIES orchids.
Email  Cal  for the latest list of seed available in packets enough to prepare 3 to 4 flasks.
Cattleya, Coryanthes, Dendrobium, Oncidium, Laelia, Aerides with more added as harvested.
All seed dated at collection, airmail post world wide and there is no restriction on orchid seed.
Cal's Orchids Australia.
CONSERVATION BY PROPAGATION.
Humour.  Top
Getting on is when
6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids
 next door won't turn down the stereo.
Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
**
Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off.
 "You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen. It said, 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice."
 A man walked into the doctors, he said, "I've hurt my arm in several places" The doctor said, "Well don't go there any more"
The FBI had an opening for an assassin.
After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done there were 3 finalists. Two men and a woman.
For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.
"We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting a chair. Kill Her!!!"
The man said, "You can't be serious, I could never shoot my wife."
The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job. Take  your wife and go home."
 The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes. The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I can't kill my wife."
The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."
Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room.
Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls.
After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there  stood the woman, She wiped the sweat from her brow.
"This gun is loaded with blanks" she said. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."
MORAL: Women can be evil. Don't mess with them.
++++++
Join Cloud Forest Institute
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT INITIATIVE PLEASE SEE
"http://www.cloudforest.org" FOR MORE INFORMATION
Join Cloud Forest Institute a federally recognized 501(c)3 to fund a wildlife corridor in the Ecuadorian
Tropical Andes and protect it - forever!
The two parcels comprising of 840-acres of Cloud Forest in the Ecuadorian Paso Alto Range of the Andes
in the Cambugan Watershed is home to jaguars, spectacled bears, over 300 species of ORCHIDS, and the
highest number of amphibian and endemic bird species in the WORLD.- Concerned people are encouraged to make
tax-deducatible donations and create honorary groves in their own name.
Top
Ian and Pat Walters, Burleigh Park Orchid Nursery
54 Hammond Way, Thuringowa, Australia 4815
Email us at mailingList.html ?Subject=General inquiry.
http://www.speciesorchids.com/
Phone Fax 0747 740 008
International 61 747 740 008

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