Deflasked seedlings update

Phalaenopsis Hawaii Dragon Girl grows much faster, but they were also larger sized when I took them out of flask. Unfortunately I lost two of my "pick-of-the-litter" from this batch to some kind of rot. The edges of the leaves got watery, see-through, I freaked out and threw them away.
Here is what's left:



There are still too many for my limited space, so I am planning to leave 15 largest ones for myself (back two rows), and get rid of the 5 compots at the front. Two of them (with larger seedlings) are already spoken for. The other three might have too small seedlings, so maybe I should just throw them away. I don't know if they are worth the space, even though I can see them growing.

Phal. Bedfrod Nonpareil seedlings are much slower.



I am thinking of throwing away two compots in clay pots that were just protocorms without any roots when I deflasked and being newb - potted them too. Now I know that too small ones might as well be eliminated at the beginning.

Seedlings

I was bored last weekend and decided to move my phalaenopsis seedlings around, again.
There were actually several reasons to do it. With pots being on the heat mat I noticed that they dry out too fast, so I wanted to increase the layer of sphagnum moss in the pots, get rid of net pots and was really curious about their roots conditions.

The roots were fine and growing on the most of the seedlings. I didn't loose any of them yet. Since they were out of pots - I did sort them by size, again, created several compots to use valuable space on the heat mats more efficiently but still left some of the larger ones single. Here is what came out of it.

Phalaenopsis Bedford Nonpareil:



It is amazing how much difference in size is between the largest and the smallest seedlings from this flask.
Since heat mats make the tray bottom pretty warm I decided to raise pots above and placed each of them on the plastic net pot or vanda basket. Then I could leave a small layer of water right there in the trays, so humidity jumped to 85% with temps around 28 C - almost Borneo conditions.

Phalaenopsis Hawaii Dragon Girl:



Dragon girls are more consistent in size.
The only problem I have now - a lot of condensation on the clear plastic domes that cover those trays. I have to wipe them a lot.

Since rearranging seedlings free-ed(is that a word?) some space in the heated trays - I will put some of my other seedlings in there. Phal. gigantea will be first to get in.

Seedlings on heat mats

So, my phalaenopsis seedlings spent three days on the heat mats and they are still alive and growing.



I was monitoring temps and humidity and noticed that during night temps are around 25-27 C, during day 27 C and in the evening when whole family gathers in the office in front of their computers (three working computers, three persons and a dog in the smallish room) - temps in the trays get up to 29-30 C.



Humidity is between 60 and 70% and creates a lot of condensation on the domes. It gets up to 70%, I open the domes to wipe them and it drops to 60%, then I close the domes and it climbs back to 70%.



I am not sure if 30C is too high temps for seedlings. Clay pots feel warm at the bottom but not hot. The sphagnum moss dries faster now, so I need to check on them more often.
Hope I am doing the right thing with all this heating...

Deflasked seedlings update

Phalaenopsis Bedford Nonpareil:




Phalaenopsis Hawaii Dragon Girl:







Both of them were deflasked at the end of July, but Dragon Girls were much larger in the flask. I noticed that they are also growing faster out of the flask.
Now I understand that I should have kept the Bedford Nonpareil babies in flask much longer.
Oh well, we learn from our mistakes, important thing - they are still alive.

Now seedlings are about 4 months out of the flask. Since this is my first time in deflasking - I am not sure if their growth rate is acceptable or not.
What do you think?

Deflasked seedlings update

It has been over a month since I logged in the status of my seedlings.
They are still alive, there were no deaths since last update. Lots of them are working on a new leaf and all grew some new roots.

Phal. Bedford Nonpareil:





Phal. Hawaii Dragon Girl:





I also noticed this little plant - it looks like it has a keiki growing on the side:



Would be awesome if it survived.

Small update on deflasked seedlings

They are still alive and started to show the signs of new growth - either roots or leaves, or both. Some of the larger ones are potted into individual pots:



I am still worried if I should have left them mixed up with the small ones in their compots. Time will tell if I made a mistake by potting them up separately.



Compots look like they are growing too:



The overgrown in the flask Hawaii Dragon Girl seedlings have all curled and deformed leaves. Hopefully new ones will grow normal:



Even the pots with the smaller Bedford Nonpareil show some new leaves:



So far I threw away three smallish seedlings from the plastic pots. I noticed that they started to rot the roots. Apparently plastic pots and moss don't agree with me. Urgently I moved all the seedlings from plastic pots to clay ones. Luckily none of the other seedlings had this problem yet.

I keep them all in my humidity trays and water by misting the moss every 2 days using lukewarm tap water with dilluted 20-20-20 fert.

Moved some seedlings around

I did something that I probably shouldn't have done.
When I was deflasking my seedlings, I did it wrong. I should have put all the same sized seedlings together, instead I mixed them up. So, the large ones were in the same pot with smaller ones and it bothered me.
Finally I just got tired of looking at that mess and rearranged them. And like it wasn't bad enough - I also potted the largest ones into individual pots.
Here they are now, there are two hybrids mixed up in both trays (Bedford Nonpareil and Hawaii Dragon Girl) all labeled of course:





Hope it will not kill them. I already see some new roots pushing out of some plantlets.
Well, in couple weeks it will show if I killed them or not.

Bedford Nonpareil - one week after deflasking.

The seedlings survived first week and look fine to my unexperienced eye.



I have been keeping them in the propagation trays with domes and mist sprayed them to have the moss moist.
I never found any info on how long should they stay in those compots and decided to keep them there until the spring and then try to separate them into individual pots.
Now, couple of the seedlings are clearly outgrown their siblings:



I don't know if I should take them out to the own pots now or let them stay until the spring too.

Deflasking phalaenopsis first time

Yesterday I decided to deflask my Phal Bedford Nonpareil seedlings.
Here is what I did.

Washed seedlings under warm tap water and laid them on to paper towel:




Filled clay pots on 2/3 with large bark pieces:




Added fresh sphagnum to the top:




Arranged seedlings in the sphagnum moss like this:



I didn't throw away anything and potted even smallest rootless babies (which is probably stupid):



Placed all the pots into the propagation tray with dome to keep humidity up and hope they will survive:

Phalaenopsis flask update

Well, I am just posting here pictures so I could ask on the forum if planlets look crowded and have to be deflasked. I bought the flask a month ago, and I can see that babies grew since then.
To my newbies eye they look crowded and I am itching to take them out, but then I also don't want to cause their death because I took them out too early.
So here are the pics:












Update:
According to the knowledgeable folks on the Orchid Board, I should leave plants in for at least a month or maybe more. Until there is no more head space. Apparently they like to be crowded.

Flask arrival

Fedex delivered the package in time and it was in such a fancy box that I almost wanted to do the "opening box" video as one of those geeks opening new gadget and sniffing it on Youtube.
Inside were a much anticipated flask of Phal. Bedford Nonpareil (P. Penang Girl ‘Ching Ruey’ X P. Princess Kaiulani ‘Chin Yo’ AM), three phals I ordered and two free plants.
I will post about plants later, now about flask.
Ever since I saw that wonderful display of Lowland Juwels at the orchid show, I got this idea to get a flask and grow them all to the blooming size to see the variations in siblings blooms.
Now, I realize that this being my first attempt will not yeld that many of them at the blooming stage, but one should start somewhere and I will be happy if at least couple will survive.
Some pictures of the flask taken in low light, so not very good:







Last picture shows some dried root ends and it bothers me a bit. Maybe I should open it now?