Cyp. tissue culture

[Kevin]

Might be a dumb question, but just want to clarify for myself: if a person uses the term 'tissue culture' when referring to propagating Cyps, do they mean growing from seed, or do they have their terms mixed up?

 

[monocotman]

Kevin,
at the moment this always refers to the aseptic culture of seed.
Svante Malmgren has a great web site talking about the trials and tribulations of this system. Well worth a look.
As far as I know, there is no way of propagating individual clones using tissue culture like, say, cattleyas,
Regards,
David

 

[SelectOrchids]

Kevin,
at the moment this always refers to the aseptic culture of seed.
Svante Malmgren has a great web site talking about the trials and tribulations of this system. Well worth a look.
As far as I know, there is no way of propagating individual clones using tissue culture like, say, cattleyas,
Regards,
David

At present time most European seedlings and flasks suppliers no longer have access to the wild mother plants, so they divide the clumps in flask and replate them, this is in a way 'tissue culture', though there is a loss of vigor, that makes up for weak, hard to grow seedlings after several cutting on improper media.

It is possible to tissue culture cypripedium that have been grown in pumice or rockwool, more difficult if they have been grown with organic or dirty mixes, as the decontamination process would be more complicated. They can be however tissue cultured readily, by lateral shoot induction out of a mature plant's apex, using little if no hormons and the proper media.

 

[Kevin]

I was under the impression that all slipper orchid species could not be grown by tissue culture (mericloning). Is it only Cyps that this is able to done with? Why not Paphs or Phrags, then? Who is doing this with Cyps, and where can we buy them? Why are they still so expensive then?

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Wasn't there an article in Orchids a few years ago about mericloning C. reginae and reintroducing it to the wild? From what I've read, there have been some cloning techniques developed for paphs, but they were not as cheap or productive as mericloning....not to mention that it seems that a lot of people just seem to like slippers being what they are, and don't want to see the mass produced clones that we see with other orchids.

 

[Kevin]

I'm not aware of that article. Could be, but it may be like you say, that the market is not there. Too bad, because the alternative is to dig them from the wild. I have no problem with rescued plants, but there is no way to prove they were rescued or taken from someplace else.

For the major Cyp growers and sellers in the U.S. and Europe, where do they get their plants?

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

For the major Cyp growers and sellers in the U.S. and Europe, where do they get their plants?

It depends on the plant. Of course all hybrids are produced in vitro. In the US only a few hobbyists are doing doing this. In Europe Michael Weinert and Svante Malmgren are two of the more famous producers of hybrids, but there are quite a few others.

With the species it depends on which one. To date most of the Eurasian species are as yet wild sourced, though C. calceolus, C. fasciolatum, C. flavum, C. formosanum, C. guttatum, C. macranthos, C. tibeticum, and even C. shanxiense have all been produced in fairly large numbers. Of the Japanese plants, only C. macranthos is produced through seed, the rest are wild sourced. Most of the North America plants (with the exception of the Mexican sp) have been raised by seed, though the C. acaule for sale are largely wild collected since it is such a common species.

 

[Hakone]

For the major Cyp growers in Europe, where do they get their plants?

vegetative propagation

 

[Hakone]

C. calceolus, C. fasciolatum, C. flavum, C. formosanum, C. guttatum, C. macranthos, C. tibeticum

are produced in Europe through seed.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

are produced in Europe through seed.

Yes, that is what I meant. Though not all sold in Europe are from seed...

 

[Hakone]

Correctly, not all sold in Europe, USA, China, Japan are from seed.

 

[Kevin]

Good info. My original question was about tissue culture, and it seems that the general concensus is that it is possible, but not a good way of producing a high number of high-quality plants. And only a few species have had success with it. Is that correct?

More specifically, in Canada, where I'm from, is it amlost guaranteed that all native orchids for sale here are wild collected?

 

[tocarmar]

Good info. My original question was about tissue culture, and it seems that the general concensus is that it is possible, but not a good way of producing a high number of high-quality plants. And only a few species have had success with it. Is that correct?

More specifically, in Canada, where I'm from, is it amlost guaranteed that all native orchids for sale here are wild collected?

I think Frasier farms are mostly seed raised, from their own breeding.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

I think Frasier farms are mostly seed raised, from their own breeding.

Yes, Frasier is one that is seed propagating in Canada. In the past they definitely were getting a lot of stuff out of China alla pulled from the ground, but have turned to artificial propagation in the last decade.

Hey Kevin, terrestrial orchid sales will always be a "micromarket", so not many folks get in the game. Perhaps no one takes artificial production more seriously than European growers. You constantly hear stories of mass production and micropropagation out of Germany, Holland, and Belgium.

Dido, thanks for the information on the tissue cultured plants. Hopefully this technique can be expanded and improved on. I know of one person in the US who has been trying this as well with some success (C. reginae).

 

[Dido]

Frasier they do cloning of seedlings too,
on this way they do it for the rare kinds, I get told by them.

So it exist already in your countrys too.

 

[Linus_Cello]

Hey Kevin, terrestrial orchid sales will always be a "micromarket", so not many folks get in the game. Perhaps no one takes artificial production more seriously than European growers. You constantly hear stories of mass production and micropropagation out of Germany, Holland, and Belgium.

Maybe terrestrial temperate orchids will become the new outdoor garden fad once prices come down to $10-20US? Maybe in the US we'll see them in Home Depot, like some folks in Germany are seeing in their nursery?
http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25492

In the US, once Martha Stewart mentions these plants in her magazines, sales can really take off. Tom of Parkside has a great story about one of their plants being featured in her magazine (some oncidium intergeneric, maybe brassidium); hundreds of people (orchid newbies) asked to buy one- the plant is about 4-5 feet tall with flower spikes (rivalling a standard cymbidium), not a windowsill plant.

 

[keithrs]

I have heard of folk being able to buy terrestrial orchids from home centers in FL.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Frasier they do cloning of seedlings too,
on this way they do it for the rare kinds, I get told by them.

So it exist already in your countrys too.

Hey Dido, I have heard of that, but "cloning" a developing seed isn't really quite the same thing as cloning a mother plant. Using axillary buds and root tips ensures that the resulting plants will be replicates of the mother plant while cloning developing seedlings could lead to propagating unknown plants. That is useful for getting more plants of a rare species, or if you are tying to increase production with a limited amount of germinating seed.

I know of one person who has cloned using root tips of the mother plant - that is the interesting direction to move in, especially with exceptional plants. Using axillary buds is fine too, but if the procedure fails then you risk losing the mother plant, and you don't get any new propagules either. On the other hand, using root tips doesn't mortally harm the mother plant if done correctly.

So, I guess it is all a matter of what your goals are for cloning plants in the first place. Really unusual plants like "alba" flowering C. japonicum, C. formosanum, C. kentuckiense, etc. could potentially be propagated using root tip tissue culture, but so far has not been done (or at least reported). Similarly, hybrids that result in exceptional flowers could be reproducing using the same technique.

 

[Dido]

hi Tom,

they are claiming that they do clones of adult plants.

http://www.nextplant.de/gardenorchids

So lets see how it goes on.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Hey Dido, sounds interesting. They need to clone that spotted Ulla Silkens on their top page!