# Brachy/Parvi flasks



## ehanes7612 (Dec 8, 2011)

of all the brachy and parvi flasks i bought (about 30) in the past year...i have noticed two stark patterns (granted,could be the mix the flaskers use, The Roots)...i lost 2/3 of my leuchochilums (3 flasks ) to rot but only months after deflasking and pretty much lost all the alba (2 bellatulum, and one concolor) crosses (they never had much of a root system to begin with)..i lost one regular bellatulum flask (bad roots) also...but everything else (complex brachy hybrids and all the parvis are doing good to great....leaves me with the thought of never buying albas or leuchochilums until they are nbs plants ( i losta leucho alba falsk too, but due to shipping damage)

with that...who is doing the best breeding for leucho's? (ive been told they are in Thailand , curious to know if any vendors here (US) sell their breeding


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## Stone (Dec 9, 2011)

I can't answer your last question but as far as deflasking goes, I recently deflasked some niveums, fairrieanums, sanderianums, as well Sophronites, catasetum, cymbidium. And apart from losing a few niveums, every single other seedling made it! What I did this time was to wrap each indvidual root system in a small ball of live sphag moss and place them arnoud the edge of the container which was first half filled with washed volcanic stones.
Some of the catasetums were not much bigger than protocorms but they all put out leaves and roots! Now they're almost ready to go into bark. I think they really like that localized humidity of the moss. Even niveums with NO roots are now on the way


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## Rick (Dec 9, 2011)

What are you feeding?

What's your potting mix?


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## tim (Dec 9, 2011)

put in plug trays, which decreases the risk of fungus spreading from one seedling to the next...like the professionals do it


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## ehanes7612 (Dec 9, 2011)

Rick said:


> What are you feeding?
> 
> What's your potting mix?



nothing and nothing..i dont remove them from agar until agar disappears..i think its the curse fo some albas..who knows ..dont care ..not going through it again..the leuchochilum stumped me so perhaps i waited too long to repot them


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## NYEric (Dec 10, 2011)

I/we lost all the album godefroyae we got in earlier this year but I think the major issue was the shipping/re-shipping, not only plant vigor. I must say it is much better to grow stuff from compot than from flask. Even if you have fewer seedlings they have survived the deflasking and growth start hurdles!


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## ehanes7612 (Dec 10, 2011)

tim said:


> put in plug trays, which decreases the risk of fungus spreading from one seedling to the next...like the professionals do it



its funny you say this ...my method once the agar dissolves and i can easily pull the seedlings apart is to place them in individual containers...but there is usually a clump that wont come apart easily, so i just repot them in a compot...now the leuchochilums i lost ...all lost were the ones individually potted and i didnt lose any in the compots...so its something mechanical that is the issue (more disturbance of the roots)...and i thought i was being careful but also the agar on these dried out a lot quicker than usual and i didnt notice for awhile...it may have been that the ones that came apart easier dried out too much (or whatever) making them weak and the ones that stuck together (they were the inner ones of the flask) somehow maintained their integrity at an optimum level ...for the albas..they just slowly died off one by one over 4 month period (they yellowed and slowly damped off)...i had several bellatulum (normal) flasks ..all except one is doing well..so i am chalking them up to genetics


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## ehanes7612 (Dec 10, 2011)

NYEric said:


> I/we lost all the album godefroyae we got in earlier this year but I think the major issue was the shipping/re-shipping, not only plant vigor. I must say it is much better to grow stuff from compot than from flask. Even if you have fewer seedlings they have survived the deflasking and growth start hurdles!



i think there is something to hybrid brachy vitality when buying flasks..because of all the hybrid brachy flasks (10 to 15 flasks..cant remember) ...havent lost a single seedling


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## goldenrose (Dec 10, 2011)

I got leucos from Paphiness, which are thai breeding, back in spring '09, a couple are in bud now. They did well for me, I left them as mini compots & just seperated them this spring.
Monsoon Flora, I would highly recommend. One of the last compots, which I got in fall '09, Monsoon Nova Luna (Bellatrix x armeniacum) has done well and there's a couple in bud now. I did 3 compots (there were 27 plants in the flask) and this spring started seperating them into individual pots.


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## ehanes7612 (Dec 10, 2011)

goldenrose said:


> I got leucos from Paphiness, which are thai breeding, back in spring '09, a couple are in bud now. They did well for me, I left them as mini compots & just seperated them this spring.
> Monsoon Flora, I would highly recommend. One of the last compots, which I got in fall '09, Monsoon Nova Luna (Bellatrix x armeniacum) has done well and there's a couple in bud now. I did 3 compots (there were 27 plants in the flask) and this spring started seperating them into individual pots.



no comment on Paphiness ...i tried to communicate with Monsoon Flora (several times) but they never got back to me


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## cattmad (Dec 10, 2011)

you should try the tokyo orchid nursery, a little bit expensive, but the best flasks I have ever seen. I bought a bellatulum flask from the in singapore, fantastic plants, 30 plants in the flask and I put about 12 straight into tubes as the were huge 80mm leaf span straight out of flask


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## tim (Dec 10, 2011)

that's because they do an extra replating...which is great if you have cheap labor...


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## cattmad (Dec 10, 2011)

tim said:


> that's because they do an extra replating...which is great if you have cheap labor...



labour cant be that much cheaper, flasks were 50-100 dearer than most other vendors, but worth it because the flasks were so good


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## ehanes7612 (Dec 10, 2011)

cattmad said:


> labour cant be that much cheaper, flasks were 50-100 dearer than most other vendors, but worth it because the flasks were so good



not that i know...but isnt the cost of labor fairly equitable to the US in Japan?


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## ehanes7612 (Dec 10, 2011)

just did a google search..apparently they can pay part timers really low wages (equal to 1.20 an hour)


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## cattmad (Dec 10, 2011)

ehanes7612 said:


> just did a google search..apparently they can pay part timers really low wages (equal to 1.20 an hour)



1.20/hr, I stand corrected.

still the best flasks I have ever seen


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## PaphNPhal (Jan 8, 2012)

ehanes7612 said:


> with that...who is doing the best breeding for leucho's? (ive been told they are in Thailand , curious to know if any vendors here (US) sell their breeding



I don't know if they're the best, but Hung Sheng are somewhat easy to get in the US. According to their site, they have 3500 leucho for sale,I don't know if the vendors can order different crosses. Formosa Orchids, Water Orchids, and Ten Shin Gardens sell their stuff. 

Ten Shin has low plant prices, but high flask prices. They'll be at Santa Barbara, and Vancouver in March. They'll also ship once they're in the states.

Water Orchids has low flask prices, and medium plant prices. I think they'll be at Santa Barbara, but not sure. Minimum pre-order is $500. I found this out cause after waiting 2 weeks for a confirmation on a preorder, cheked their site and saw their minimum. Apparently my $200 order was to small to even warrant a response.

I have no experience with Hung Sheng plants, I asked in the Vendor Forum and got no response, but I placed a small order with Ten Shin, and will get them at the end of the month


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## Ozpaph (Jan 10, 2012)

Well, I've just deflasked several multi hybrids from Hung Sheng; beautiful plants. Excellent roots and leaves. The last lot of flasks from them was also superb (I brought them through an importer).


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## poozcard (Jan 10, 2012)

ehanes7612 said:


> its funny you say this ...my method once the agar dissolves and i can easily pull the seedlings apart is to place them in individual containers...but there is usually a clump that wont come apart easily, so i just repot them in a compot...now the leuchochilums i lost ...all lost were the ones individually potted and i didnt lose any in the compots...so its something mechanical that is the issue (more disturbance of the roots)...and i thought i was being careful but also the agar on these dried out a lot quicker than usual and i didnt notice for awhile...it may have been that the ones that came apart easier dried out too much (or whatever) making them weak and the ones that stuck together (they were the inner ones of the flask) somehow maintained their integrity at an optimum level ...for the albas..they just slowly died off one by one over 4 month period (they yellowed and slowly damped off)...i had several bellatulum (normal) flasks ..all except one is doing well..so i am chalking them up to genetics




I do similar way
it works well


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## NYEric (Jan 10, 2012)

Ozpaph said:


> Well, I've just deflasked several multi hybrids from Hung Sheng; beautiful plants. Excellent roots and leaves. The last lot of flasks from them was also superb (I brought them through an importer).



Thanks a lot!


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## cattmad (Jan 10, 2012)

Ozpaph said:


> Well, I've just deflasked several multi hybrids from Hung Sheng; beautiful plants. Excellent roots and leaves. The last lot of flasks from them was also superb (I brought them through an importer).



I did the same, but got parvi hybrids, as stephen said, very nice flasks with great seedling in them


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