Orchids awaken in us a great passion for collecting. At the latest when there are no longer any hurdles to expert care, the desire to grow your own orchids grows. You can choose between the more uncomplicated vegetative method and the highly complicated generative propagation technique. Below we give an overview of how you can grow orchids yourself.
How can you grow orchids yourself?
Orchids can be grown by vegetative methods such as kindling, cuttings and division or by generative propagation from seeds. Vegetative techniques are simpler and more promising, while seed breeding requires many years of experience and sterile conditions.
Suitable for beginners and promising – Vegetative breeding techniques
So that your orchid cultivation takes shape quickly in the early stages, vegetative (asexual) propagation comes into focus. The following 3 methods can be put into practice on the windowsill. New orchids will thrive with the same wonderful attributes of the mother plant without having to endure countless, demotivating setbacks. All 3 techniques are discussed in more detail below:
Kindel
- Calanthe, Dendrobium, Epidendrum and Phalaenopsis are suitable
- Leaves and aerial roots thrive on the bulbs or flower stems, where flowers should actually sprout
- Cut off these children when they have at least 2-3 leaves and several aerial roots
- Plant each cutting in a transparent culture pot with fine-grained orchid soil (€6.00 on Amazon)
- Keep slightly moist under a hood or in an indoor greenhouse at 25 degrees and fertilize liquidly every 4-6 weeks
Cuttings
- Trailing orchid species such as Vanda or Angraecum are suitable
- Cut a 40 cm long, non-flowering head cutting
- Deleafing a cutting in the lower half
- Place in a pot with small-grain orchid substrate
- Put a plastic bag over it, supported by 2-3 wooden sticks as spacers
- Spray regularly at 25-28 degrees Celsius and water sparingly
Division
- Many branching (sympodial) orchid species are suitable, such as Brassia, Cymbidium or Oncidium
- Unpot the orchid and shake off the soil
- Divide the root ball so that each segment has at least 3 bulbs
- Plant each section in a pot with orchid substrate
Growing new orchids yourself from seeds – a brief overview
In order to start growing orchids based on sowing seeds, you should have many years of experience in vegetative propagation. Orchid seeds do not have the natural nutrient tissue that other plant seeds do. In order for the seeds to germinate and the seedlings to be viable, they are provided with an artificial supply under sterile conditions that replaces the natural symbiotic fungus. The individual steps are briefly summarized below:
- Perform manual pollination between 2 related orchid flowers as soon as the flowers have opened
- Remove the seeds from the ripe seed capsules and sterilize them in hydrogen peroxide
- Produce a special culture medium under sterile conditions and fill it into a test tube
Apply the sterilized seeds to the culture medium using an inoculation loop and close the test tube. It is important to note that you pay meticulous attention to absolute cleanliness and always clean the tool with ethanol. Place the breeding vessels in a bright, warm location with a constant 25 degrees Celsius. If germination begins after a few weeks, this is the beginning of a 5 to 15 year waiting period until the first flowering.
Tip
You avoid the high expense of sowing if you scatter the seeds on the root disk of a mother plant. With a little luck, the symbiotic fungus is present in the substrate and causes the seeds to germinate.
