Fungus attack is not fun! These are some Phal seeds I sowed one week ago. I found the pod had split earlier than I expected at a couple weeks shy of 6 months. Seems to me the previous pods have all gone to 6 or 7 months with no trouble. Must be the stuff I'm breeding now. Although, most of my previous years' efforts have used plants heavy with section Zebrinae (violacea, luedde., tetraspis, etc.) genetics as pod parent. Maybe they take longer to bake.I don't know how long the pod was open, but certainly a good 30% of the seeds fell out. I gave them a 24hr sugar soak, but admittedly I've never worked out what a good concentration of sugar is for that approach. This was followed by a bleach treatment, then the seeds were sown on a pretty standard germination media. Three days later there was one fungus colony on each plate. I carefully excised them off. Either they had already sporulated, or there were just unused spores in the mix. I hate contaminated seeds.
For kicks I'm going to try a last ditch attempt to save them. One plate will get a Daconil spray, and I'll have a go at the other one with oxidative stress (hydrogen peroxide...it'll probably kill the seeds but I'm going to try it anyway). w00t.
*BUT* there is some good news today. In fear that another pod would split early, I snatched it off today and sowed it. Its a cross of Paph (Yellow Butterfly x fairrieanum), pollinated back in March. Sounds fun, yes?? It was a smallish pod, but it really came through with a lovely crop of dark sable brown seeds. I've got one plate in the light and 2 in the dark as I do not know which this cross will respond better to. Next week sometime I'll be taking the Puck's Apple x gardineri for sowing. You may remember those contestants from March.
2 comments:
Ugh, shades of my old microbiology class. But who knows, maybe the last ditch effort will work. On a fungal note, I've had a few plants with what I assume are fungal issues lately, rapidly progressing black spots. I've removed diseased tissue, dowsed copiously with cinnamon, and kept my fingers crossed.
I do look forward to the Puck's Apple x gardineri cross. My gardineri blasted last Fall, so I hope I'll see some action with it in the near future.
I haven't forgotten about the hieroglyphica, just haven't had a chance to link up with my friend yet. My plant currently is blooming on 6 or 8 spikes.
I was intrigued by your last post about the amazing powers of the phalaenopsis, so, in a fit of nerdiness, I wrote the editor of the newspaper an email. He replied and told me that he forwarded my questions to the author, and that I should expect a reply from the author soon. If I do, I'll forward it to you!
hehehe fit of nerdiness :)
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