Greetings,

I am initiating a long term research project on orchid Mycorrhizae, specifically directed towards paph species. Essentially, I would like to find if the Mycorrhizae utilized by paph species is/are host-specific, however, a broad and specific study of paph species' Mycorrhizae will be made.

Also, I am interested to find if their seeds are cabable of carrying their own Mycorrhiza, rather than relying on the chance of finding suitable species of it in nature.

Based upon my own limited experiences with Mycorrhizae and Paphiopedilums, the potential for rapid seed germination and seedling growth seems 'remarkable', particularly in contrast to normal laboratory results.

I am asking members of this forum, (as I will also post on one or two other forums), if anyone could supply me with seeds of Paphiopedilum species.

What I need:
Sib-selfed, (or selfed) seed pods of species paphiopedilums which originate from their jungle habitats. I will however, accept seed pods made using species plants which have been produced in captivity. If possible, I need selfings made using a random selection of parents, rather than crosses made using selected parents for whatever reasons.

All species of paphiopedilums. (These must be genuine species plants. If your plants do not have a known history, please do not consider them for use in this project).

NO HYBRIDS,...however plants thought to be "natural hybrids" can be accepted.

While I have not grown orchids for the past 17 years, and do not have any now, this project will be accomplished utilizing private growing facilities.

Also, since I do not know the outcome of these experiments beforehand, I cannot promise there will be any seedlings produced however, should there be any sufficient numbers of plants produced from donated seed pods, I will want to return most of those plants to donors.

Results of my research will be published from time to time.

Thanks,

Lance Birk

You know me. I'm in.

This sounds like a fun one.

I'll see what I can supply.

Lance, call me or email me offlist about this.

ST

Interesting project! I hope you are successful so that I can get my roths to bloom within 10 years out of flask!

Come on, Lance, you don't even have a cymbidium on your patio??? Shame!

The new book is great and I'm hoping we can put together an eastern speaking tour for you!

Garland

Steve,
I appreciate your help and interest, but I still have more groundwork to do before I send you any more details for this project. I'm pretty well swamped at the moment with other things to do, but we'll keep in touch.

Garland,
You have to understand........I'm an addict! I CAN'T have any orchids.
(Maybe some day).

I used to grow my seedlings from flask in a separate greenhouse. It was dark (heavy layer of white latex paint), hot (85° daytime to 65-70° nights) and very humid. I also did my own flasking which allowed me to have seedlings available out of the replate flask about 6 months after seed sowing. I never had seeds of rothschildianum, but I routinely bloomed most of my paphs in 2 to 4 years from flask....some even sooner.

I found that even odontoglossums and other cool growing species would grow rapidly in my seedling house. When I potted them into individual pots, usually a 3" size, I'd put them in the main greenhouse.

If I wanted to really accelerate their growth, I'd leave them in the seedling house until they were close to blooming size. Maybe you can do something like that with your rothschildianum seedling plants.

I'm glad you are enjoying my book........I've sold over 1,000 already. It's too bad a lot of the other members of this forum haven't read it yet; it sure would answer a lot of their questions they keep asking.

And, to address that problem, I'm putting the book on my Web site so people can read it themselves. Unfortunately, there are a few problems in getting it posted correctly, but they'll eventually be worked out.

http://www.lancebirk.com/gpage.html2.html

Talk to me about giving talks.

Cheers.

I'm glad you are enjoying my book........I've sold over 1,000 already. It's too bad a lot of the other members of this forum haven't read it yet; it sure would answer a lot of their questions they keep asking.

Hi Lance, and welcome to the forum. Personally, I use your book as a reference quite a lot. If I have a question, I generally post it here for everyone's benefit, but I also check your book for an answer. The beauty of this slipper discussion forum is that, since we all know that nothing will work the same way for every grower, we can look to others for opinions based on knowledge and experience. One of the most important things I have learned throughout my first year of growing is never to take only one grower's advice, but rather, to weigh all the knowledge I can find, relate that to my own conditions, and make my own choices and decisions based on that pool of information.