Paphiopedilum seedlings update

Seedlings are still alive. I have moved them from clay pots with sphagnum to plastic pots with small bark mix.

I haven't lost any sanderianum yet, even runts in the small pot are fresh and perky:



Stonei is not as lucky. I lost few more to the same rot through the bent stem. Here is what's left:



It seems that they didn't do much since the last update but when I was re-compotting them, I noticed lots of root growth, so there was some activity under the surface :).

Paphiopedilum seedlings: three weeks after deflasking

Seedlings are sill alive but I have noticed that moss stays wet too long. I think because there is not that many roots, moss doesn't have chance to dry out as fast as it did with my phalaenopsis deflasklings.
I decided to do something about it which of course involved pulling seedlings out of the medium.
Instead of having moss all the way to the bottom of the pots I filled pots for about half way with large bark pieces. Then put layer of moss above it.
I also made community pots a bit more crowded, so there are now four compots of sandie and only two of stonei.

Paph. sanderianum:



Paph. stonei:



Sanderianum seedlings look happier at the top but stonei grew a bit more of new roots while sandies use old flask roots still. Maybe different species have different priorities while growing, I don't know.
I threw away two more seedlings of stonei because of rotting damage on the leaves. And then there were 14....
Sanderianums count is still over 30, I didn't throw any yet...

Paph. stonei: one week after deflasking

What's left of the paph. stonei seedlings - 16 plantlets in three compots.

Paph. stonei x sib ('Red Pouch' x 'The Best'):



Compot 1:



Compot 2:



Compot 3:



They don't look all that good, but I figure if they were to die - it would already happen after a week...

New seedlings losses

It is a sad day: I threw away quite a few small seedlings of paph. stonei that I just deflasked last Friday.
Of course it was all my fault. I didn't realize how thin and fragile the plants are when I was taking them out of the flask.
Some of the plantlets got bent through the stem. I didn't even know how many of them were damaged like that until I saw this:



Notice the brown "belt" around the plant, I think it started to rot through. After checking each pot I found more. As it always happens, affected ones were the largest and those with most roots. They all went to garbage.
Oh well, it was my first paphiopedilum flask and apparently they are not as easy and sturdy as phalaenopsis.
There are still about 15 plants left, I rearranged them into two large pots and one small.
Now I am not so confident that all of them will survive.

Sanderianum seedlings were shorter and fatter, they didn't get much damage except some broken leaves. No losses there yet...

Deflasked paphiopedilums

Recently I ordered two flasks from Orchid Inn: Paphiopedilum sanderianum and Paphiopedilum stonei.
I don't know what I was thinking, both species take over 7 years to get mature enough for blooming and paphs are not exactly easy plants. I think some success with phalaenopsis deflasking made me think that I can do anything...
Anyway, today I received the flasks:



Of course I deflasked right away. It is totally different from phalaenopsis. Flasking medium is really hard to wash off the plants, roots are very brittle, not flexible and break easy. Even though I put them in a bowl with water - that didn't help. I had to use the sprayer to squirt the black jelly from the roots.

Sanderianum in a bowl:



Stonei in a bowl:



Untangling roots was whole other story and took a while. Of course I broke quite a few perfect roots and even acidentally ripped large seedling apart.
I still don't trust myself with bark for small seedlings, so I used the same medium as with phalaenopsis deflasking : sphagnum moss.

Paph. sanderianum x sib ('Mini' AQ/AOS x 'Dr. John' AM/AQ/AOS):



Paph. stonei x sib ('Red Pouch' x 'The Best'):



I placed seedlings into smaller orchid tank with phalaenopsis in the shady corner.



Hoping for the best...