Question
Oncidium Dancing Lady
Hello Wayne,
My yellow Dancing Lady Oncidium sprouted seed pods this year - see photo. I live in South FL. How easy is it to make new orchid plants from these seed pods - do they need cultivating in glass tubes, and if so, how is this done? If I don't cultivate them, should I just leave them on the plant or cut them off, or will the AOS perhaps want them?
Thank you,
Julie
AnswerJulie, growing plants from these seed pods would be an interesting, but a challenging, project. It is done in sterile orchid culture media using special germinating and growth media. When the pod matures, it needs to be sterilized in 10 percent bleach, then spilt open and the seeds similarly sterilized and transferred to the sterile culture bottles prepared in advance. This transfer must be done under sterile conditions or the culture media will grow fungi that will destroy the culture. If the seeds are successfully germinated and grown, it will take a year or more before they can be taken out of their bottles and placed into community pots. If successful, there will be hundreds of plant that will take 5 years or more to flower.
There are a lot of orchid societies in south Florida. Some may have members that do orhid pod culture. The American Orchid Society has a list of orchid societies in your area, google The Orchid Mall, or just google south Florida orchid societies.
