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 Seedlings
Healthy, happy orchid seedlings are a great way to add to your orchid
collection. Nurturing them, watching them grow, and finally seeing
them bloom is the joyous experience of an orchid hobbist.
We are so pleased to offer you some of the healthiest seedlings
that you will ever experience in the orchid world. Over the years
we have realized the importance of beginning with a healthy orchid
seedling to ensure your initial success.
The seedlings we offer are substantial enough to repot into a 3"
to 4" pot. We only list orchid seedlings that are ready for
repotting. You can also mount these seedlings.
The seedlings are shipped in their original container. We do not
ship bare rooted orchids to hobbyists. The seedlings are grown in
individual cell flats. Each 10" x 20" tray holds approximatedly
58 plants. They are equivalent to a thumb pot, but we grow them
even larger so they are large enough to rival many orchids in 2"
pots.
When we prepare your order we cut the tray so that the roots of
the orchid is kept intact. When you receive the seedlings you may
want to place them in the pots you are intending to plant them in
for support, while they are still in their original container. You
can water them and let them get used to their new home for a week
or so before actually repotting them.
When you are ready to repot them, remove them from their containers
trying not to break their roots. We suggest removing as much of
the old media by gently prying their roots apart and shaking the
media off.
Your choice of media for your location is best determined by you.
Aggregate is a wonderful choice since they provide a well- drained
substrate, basically inert with some weight to keep the orchids
from falling over. We have raised the the seedlings in a coir mix
(coconut and perlite) so they will be light enough for shipping.
Since most orchidists have their favorite, all we can say is that
you know best. One thing I would say is that it's a good idea to
keep the media consistent for each genera so their watering will
be approximately the same.
If in doubt what to use, your nearby orchid society or club are
wonderful ways to get tips from orchid growers that are familiar
with the particulars of your area. We know from experience that
each location provides conditions that require particular cultivation
techniques. Our two locations for our nursery has shown us that
subtle variation in microclimate requires different cultural techniques,
from watering, fertilizing and media mix.
In the future we will offer an organic nutrient mix as a general
purpose orchid fertilizer but for now you can log on to www.groworganic.com
for information and supplies.
How long will your seedling take to bloom? This is a common question
but the answer is complex and sometimes unpredictable. It depends
on your location, growing techniques, blooming season, etc. Some
orchids already are blooming in the seedling stage. Particularly
with minatures, they are already mature plants in our seedling size.
Since age, rather than size seems to be the best indicator of blooming
time you can access this information via the "detail page".
You can click on the thumbnail in the catalog section to view this
detail page. On this page is listed the pollination date.
The pollination date provides inherent aspects of each hybrid. First,
the pollination date provides time of conception. Yes, most of these
seedling are over 3 years in cultivation. So the majority of them
are past the halfway point till their first flowering. Many of the
dendrobiums will bloom after three years from pollination date and
the cattleya alliance will probably take a year to two years longer.
The pollination date also provides a good indication of the season
of blooming. Many old-time breeders of cattleyas saved pollen and
were able to breed orchids with different blooming times. They also
mentioned that many cattleya hybrids don't seem to bloom. Mechanisms
for blooming are complicated and many times requires the presence
of several conditions. As a matter of practive I have only bred
orchids that are in bloom at the same time. Thus far we find that
we have no problems blooming hybrid cattleyas. My hypothesis is
that if both parents are blooming at the same time then conditions
that induced their blooming were identical.
The majority of the orchids we raise, with exception to the species
and Nobile dendrobiums, have multiple blooming seasons per year.
We love orchids that bloom and bloom.
Darrell
Sugita,
Orchid Breeder and Grower
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