Orchid Flower Seeds

Epiphytic orchids in their natural habitat

Orchid seeds are not like other flower seeds. They cannot be directly sown into soil as you would any number of other flower seeds. In the wild they have a low rate of success for producing viable plants, so each seed pod must carry an enormous number of microscopic seeds. A pod can hold between 400,000 and 1 million seeds within its walls. Making a million seeds helps the orchid's chances of perpetrating the line, but will still only result in one or two dozen viable, adult plants in nature. It is surprising how fussy orchid seeds are, considering the diversity and adaptability shown in other areas within the family Orchidaceae. Most of the orchids available for sale have been propagated and grown in sterile conditions within properly equipped laboratories.

Orchid Flower Botany

A Cymbidium orchid is grown for cut flowers as well as enjoyed as a potted plant.

Orchid flowers have several unique attributes that make them orchids. They possess both male (stamen) and female (pistil) parts which are fused together in one column. Orchid pollen is not wind-borne, but enclosed into tiny sticky sacks called pollenia. The pollenia must be ferried from one blossom to another with enough wiggling involved once on the new blossom to insure that the pollenia has been delivered to the column. Attracting the appropriate transit vehicle, whether it is a bug, bird or bat, has caused some fascinating adaptations to evolve. For example, the slipper orchids that need to attract ants to achieve pollination grew their lateral petals so long they touch the ground, where the ants use them like a ladder to reach the flower. The orchids that need to attract flies for pollination smell like rotted meat. Some use more attractive scents, particularly if the pollinator is active at night so the flower can be found easily in the dark.

Making Orchid Seeds

White faces of Phalaenopsis reflect the moonlight so pollinating moths can see them.

Pollenia can be transported by a carrier in the wild or by tweezers in the laboratory. Once the pollenia has found its way into the pistil, the orchid flowers will collapse and drop off. The ovaries will swell and become the seed pod. It will take 5 to 10 months for the seeds to ripen. As the pod approaches maturity it will begin to change color, turning yellow. Shortly after the pod yellows, it will split and the seeds will be released. In nature, these seeds do not live long unless they have fallen in a hospitable spot as they do not carry food reserves like typical seeds do. The orchid seed must land on just the right spot -- not too wet, not too dry, not too acidic nor alkaline -- that also has a certain soil fungus present. This fungus has a web of mycelium threads that carries water and offers nutrients to the tiny seedlings in exchange for sugars created in the leaves during photosynthesis.

Orchid Seeds Flasks

A tropical Paphiopedilum or lady slipper orchid in full bloom

Commercial orchid growers must ensure that they get more than one to two dozen plants out of a hybridization effort to approach profitability. That is why orchid seed pods are sterilized, opened within a sterile hood, and the seeds planted on a sterilized agar-based growing jelly within a sterilized glass flask. All this careful preparation, handling and great effort to keep bacteria, mold and viruses at bay results in a lot more plants that are healthy and will grow out to maturity. The flasks are placed under grow lights to encourage development. The smear of minute seeds on the orchid jelly will become minuscule seedlings called protocorms in six months or so. Another 20 months go by and the plantlets are mature enough to tease out of the flask and plant in community pots as a group or in very small individual pots.

From Seed to Finished Orchid

Oncidium orchid growing outside in tropical conditions

The tender young plants are susceptible at this point to almost any variation outside their comfort zone. It is important to avoid letting them get too dry or stay too wet at this point. They cannot tolerate getting too cold or too hot. The plantlets will put all their effort into growing a decent root system. Once that's accomplished, they are less fragile and can be watered normally, introducing plant food. Because they are growing like children at this point, they'll outgrow their pots fairly quickly and need to be repotted into slightly larger pots in 6 to 12 months. Repot them again in another year, only increasing the pot size by an inch or less at the time. Depending on the type of orchid, they mature to blooming size three to five years after they were deflasked.

References

• "Gardening with the Experts: Orchids"; Philip Tomlinson; 1993
• "Ortho's All About Orchids"; E. McDonald; 1999
• "Orchid Biology, Reviews and Perspectives, I"; Joseph Arditti; 1983