Eric, add to your moss trays several roots, taken from several terrestrial orchids - Paphs, maybe a Phaius - Anectochilus - any of the terrestrial or semi-terrestrial orchids you have. Cut a healthy live root or two off, they can serve then as innoculum for your moss where you plan to plant the seed. Many adult plants will carry one or another symbiotic species. The roots will die after a few weeks, but while they are fresh they can supply fungi.
Most rhododendron and azalea species and hybrids have endo-mycorhizal fungi - it is possible some of the species are the same fungi the orchids can use. So dig a few rhododendron roots up from your garden or Central Park. :evil: then you can really look like some kind of crazy.
Pines, especially American White Pines have strong associations with a dozen or more ecto-mycorrhizal species of fungi. They are often the dominant tree in eastern US forests that are Cyp pubescens habitat. Dig around a white pine and harvest some of the white mycelial masses, you can try and use that too. A mix of several sources of innoculum would probably have a better chance of success than using only one source of innoculum. Of course it will be harder to figure out which one did the trick, but your end goal is germinating the orchid seed, rather than figuring out just which fungi is the ideal "fun guy to be with".
I have read studies that showed that a single mycorrhizal colony in the soil can infect, or be hosted by more than one tree and by trees of more than one species. One study in Colorado, showed that a radio isotope doped sugar, injected into a ponderosa pine at 10 feet above ground level traveled within one hour, some 100 feet away, the radio isotope sugar was detected in an aspen. The study continued, it was demonstrated by other techniques that one tree could supply water to its tree neighbors, even if the neighbors were of several different species - the recipients got the water through their shared mycorrhizae colony. (shades of the movie Avatar, with the fungal network that connected all life, and worked like a neural network)
So it is not crazy to innocculate north american terrestrials with white pine mycorrhizae or with rhododendron mycorrhizae. Or mycorrhizae of other orchids.
The only hazzard is the odd chance you end up with a pathogenic fungi in there too. I wouldn't let that hazzard stop the experiment.
One more thing, several bonsai suppliers sell spore powders of known mycorrhizal fungi. My favorite source is
www.fungiperfecti.com Their 'Myco-Grow is a good one, but not the only one out there. Colin Lewis also sells a different mix of fungi. These spores were selected from known tree mycorrhizae, mostly pine symbionts. But, there is some evidence that orchids use several of the species that are used by the trees also.
Go wild,
My reference and a great read: "Mycelium Running (How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World)" by Paul Staments, 2005 Ten Speed Press, Berkley, CA.
By the way, Paul Staments is also a world authority on the taxonomy of Psilocybe mushrooms, he described several new species. For what it is worth.
