Notes and photos from the Waitakere Orchid Club Sarcochilus deflasking at Leroy Orchids
Hosted and demonstrated by Lee and Roy Neale.
All mistakes due to Toby who does not keep good notes!
We started with 3 flasks - these are very new crosses of top plants from Australia, these arrived early the previous week from Bill Liddy and were bred by Scott Barrie at Barrita Orchids.
Sarcochilus are a cool to intermediate growing orchid, epiphytic, or lithophytic by nature (growing with exposed roots on trees and rocks) and are very suited to the Auckland climate. They are quick to bloom from the flask, generally 2-3 years, and easy to grow either in pots or on rafts. They also normally carry a goodly number of long-lasting flowers for the plant size making a great display in bloom.
Upon arrival, the flasks are placed in strong indirect light (no direct sun) to get used to our light.
As the flasks were extremely well developed and the agar was running low it was considered a priority to get them out of the flasks so they could continue to grow at pace and not stall.
Prep started in the morning at 7.30 am
First with the lids being removed and a solid huff of air being blown into each of the flasks.
Introducing this change of air gives the plant a chance to harden a little before deflasking and handling- given that the plant has had consistent conditions (temperature, humidity, and air quality) in the flask, the huff of air is repeated throughout the day.
The bark mix is pre-prepared - Roy uses a fine (number 2) bark mix with a bit of similar-sized pumice, keep dry during potting as it is far easier to handle, under their conditions they generally prefer to use bark rather than sphagnum.
Make sure pots are clean and washed and dry (if reusing pots remember to sterilize them as part of the washing process).
Labels are written - keeping both cross names and breeder code if possible with the deflasking date on the back.
Stage 1 with Lee, a sink, and a hammer!
1) cold water (and only cold water see note below ) was used to try and dislodge the plants - in this case as the roots and plant were exceptionally healthy and advanced the flask had to be broken to get them out.
Note
Cold water - plants are happy at 20 degrees our body is at 37 so the cold water lowers our body temperature to reduce stress on the plants and by only touching leaves we reduce the risk of bruising and causing rot in the pseudobulbs/ base of the plant.
2)The plants were left halfway up the flask, the flask was wrapped in paper and the base of the flask was broken very carefully - the aim of this is to avoid damage to the plantlets and not to leave shards of glass everywhere (particularly not hidden in the agar).
4) the deflasked bundle of plantlets was washed under cold running water and gently teased apart - being careful not to pull or tug on them and to only handle by leaves where possible.
5) once separated they are carefully washed to remove any remains of the agar mix (growing media from a flask)
And then off to Roy for stage 2
Roy had the table set up with pots, bark, and trays ready to go.
6) The flasks are done one at a time and labeled at the time of potting.
7) Only handling by leaf at this stage the plants are potted into community pots of 2, 3 or 4 plants -a small amount of bark is placed at the bottom of the pot the plants on top and bark poured around them and the pot tapped to drop the bark down the side around the roots, ( this only works with dry bark!)
8) A count is done of what combinations and how many plants there are and records kept of each flask, this is done at the time and then later added to a spreadsheet that covers all of the flasks they have done.
9) The plantlets not watered that night but are left to settle overnight then transferred to the greenhouse, the first watering is a calcium solution.
Plants will be brought to the club for sale as well-rooted healthy plants within a year or two of deflasking.