Hey Y'all,

Gibberellins are used in plant tissue culture (forevermore refered to as "PTC") to induce the growth of apical buds, embryos, and seeds - terminating their dormancy. I kno that some Paph seeds are hesitant to germinate in a reasonable time frame, taking years in some cases to produce protocorms.

Has anyone ever tried to induce germination artificially, using gibberellic acid in the media. If so, what concentration? Who wants to give it a shot? I would, but I have no known dificut-to-germinate seed.

Very interesting

Hey Y'all,

Gibberellins are used in plant tissue culture (forevermore refered to as "PTC") to induce the growth of apical buds, embryos, and seeds - terminating their dormancy. I kno that some Paph seeds are hesitant to germinate in a reasonable time frame, taking years in some cases to produce protocorms.

Has anyone ever tried to induce germination artificially, using gibberellic acid in the media. If so, what concentration? Who wants to give it a shot? I would, but I have no known dificut-to-germinate seed.

Using hormones and other complex compounds in In-vitro media is quite tedious as you have to add them after the sterilisation of the media.

Paphs seeds germinates generally within 4 to 16 weeks if sown on the right media. Paphs seeds germinating after a year or years in-vitro is in my opinion serious doubtful and not reproductible.

Paphjoint,

The increased length of germination times in some complex Paph hybrids is a well-documented phenomenon. These hybrids HAVE been kept for YEARS in order to reach germination, and the resulting plants are still some of the most desirable Paphs.

Please see the Tissue Quick Plant Labs website for a general discussion of this, but here is a quote from their site:

"Germination can be quick, erratic, delayed and can be over a long period - we have had seed germinate 6 years after sowing on agar. There are reports of some species such as P.violascens taking 17 years in flask to germinate."

Now that seems like a long time to me, and the seed was still viable.

As for the tedium of adding various hormones, etc. to your medium after sterlizing your meda, it sure beats the hell out of waiting six years for germination, huh?

I think it's possible to make a concentrated cocktail of your desired plant hormones, and simply add them post autoclaving. In molecular biology, this is common place -- autoclave your media first, then add antibiotics or whatever after autoclaving. In my experience, it only takes a minute to do. If you have multiple additives, you can make a concentrated stock mixture, and then add all at once. Of course, you need to calculate you concentrations properly so that you arrive at the proper final concentration of your hormone.