Hi again, Thanks for the previous responses to my other questions. I see that it is common to use the ball canning jars for the media. I also notice that some of you use the white plastic ball brand canning cap (or atleast it looks like it in the pics). How do you sterilize this cap, can it take the pressure cooker cycle. Do you fill the jar with media turn the cap on with it 1/2 turn loose cover it with tin foil and use the pressure cooker? Can you fill me in on its usage. Still setting up my supplies so I can get started with seed flasking. Thanks. Ray

Ray,

Those caps are designed to do just as you suggest since they are specifically made for that purpose. I haven't prepared flasks in years, but your ideas sound fine. Don't forget to tighten the caps though!

Hi, Raymond,

You can buy expensive caps for Ball jars from PhytoTech or Sigma but they are inferior to the white plastic Ball caps. You can just tighten partially and sterilize with aluminum foil over them, then tighten after they cool; or, what I do is drill a small hole in the top and cover it with a round band aid. This allows me to keep the cap tight at all times. I have found that if I sterilize with an intact cap half-tight, about 1/10th of jars will seal so tightly they are difficult to open.

I do not remove the aluminum foil until after I have doused the jars with alcohol as they go into the hood. Once I have filled the jar with seed or seedlings, I place some clingwrap over the top and put a rubber band around the jar just below the glass lip beneath the lid - thus, there is some air exchange possible and a fairly tight rubber band (the ones in the big bags at Staples are the perfect size) keeps mites out - mites are the number one cause of contamination in flasks.

Hi Ron, OK thanks,,,I don't want to reinvent the wheel so I will be using all your guidance and proceedure steps....works for you...thats good enough for me. Do you have a part number and brand of this round band-aide for the plastic cap. Excellent data on this,,,Thanks again.

I have six adult dormant plants coming this week, 2 parviflorum,2 reginae, and 2 pubescens....I have researched soil recipes for these and everyone seems to have their own ideas about this. The common point in all these recipes seems to be DRAINAGE...It seems like a few North American growers and most of the European growers have a different focus point when it comes to outside beds. From what I can see, most of the American growers are primarly focused on DRAINAGE, and their recipes are centered on this theme. Thus we see 50% perlite-low organic-gravel-coarse sand mixes. Almost sterile mixes like you could use in a hydroponic approach.

From what I can find, a very high percentage of growers from Europe have a much different focus. Although drainage is required, it is not the main focus, its just an accepted parameter. Their focus is that the bud is placed just level to the top of this high drainage mix in the outdoor bed, and then it is covered by 3 inches of forest duff, primarly decomposed oak leaf matter, maybe topped with a thin layer of pine needles, and then capped with a thin layer of gravel. The gravel holds the moisture in this duff covering...This duff layer is collected off the forest floor and is not sterlized. The complete microflora of this layer is alive. The duff is rubbed through a 1 cm screen and used as is. The rain washes through this layer and provides the nutrients to the plants. I have found dozens of references to this proceedure. If you go to Svante Malmgrens web site, buried in the many pages of text, you can find some reference to this. You can also see outdoor bedded plants that Malmgren started from culture that now have 40 blooming stems on that one plant...they look great. He also makes some good points why adult plants are lost in the outdoor beds. Works for those boys, good enough for me.

Decomposed oak leaves that are composted on the forest floor in a mixed hardwood forest have a very nice chocolate brown color to them, the texture becomes sort of liike a fine spagnum peat moss material that just seems fantastic. Fortunatly, I have been composting Red OAk leaves in the forest for 15 years and now have bushels of this material.

I have found a technical paper that states some of the Cypripedium in the wild grow for 30 - 95 years and maybe longer, with lateral rizome spread of up to 2 meters!!! I can not imagine them living so long on a pure sterile mix of perilte with a center focus on DRAINAGE.....seems they like that primordial soup filtering out of that duff layer.

Hi, Raymond,

Indeed drainage is the key! As some say, "if in doubt add more sand." For North American species outside I use a large amount of #3 gravel - this is available in large bags at water filtration companies. If you cannot find it, then the Quickrete Play Sand is very good - dont use most other sands as many are quite alkaline. I tend to use very little Perlite outside as it will float to the top eventually. This fall, I went about 50% sand, 25% "turface" - an expanded clay gravel that absorbs water, and about 25% a mix of ground up leaves (twice through a shredder). Drainage, drainage, drainage! (and in the summer a nice 1-2 inch layer of very loose mulch to keep the soil moist and of constant termperature.

Yes, some Cyps, in particular Cyp reginae can get enormous - a couple of mine that have only been blooming for 5 years (still babies for Cyps!) have root balls (really disks since they do not grow downward much) that are nearly 3 feet in diameter - and some seedlings that have been planted out only one year have root balls 10 inches in diameter.. Some Cyp pubescens also grow to have extremely large clumps.

If the plant has good drainage and just the right amount of light it will live for well over 100 years and have dozens of flowers.

Ron Burch

Hi Ron, thanks for the reply....If I use powdered carbon in the media and mix this on the magnetic stirrer and pour my mother flasks, then use the pressure cooker to sterlize,,,,will the carbon settle out or stay suspended,,,how do you get around this?.....Also, what is your perferred PH for the reginae flask. Was talking to S.M. and he suggested a shot of pineapple juice with that cube of potatoe and adjust the PH with NH3....Any thoughts on this? Ray.