Beat the Breeders
In a previous post (It’s tough to be a slipper orchid breeder), I enumerated many of the difficulties in breeding orchids. After depressing myself writing that post, I’ve hit upon an obvious-in-retrospect observation that will enable the home grower to compete on a level field with the big guys.
As I said previously, quality breeding takes a long time and costs a lot in terms of stud plants and growing space. Can’t do much about time: it works the same for everyone. Stud plants? Well, you might be able to get some pollen from top plants and put it on a very nice specimen of your own. It’s not too hard to find stud plants; what is hard is finding stud plants of high-demand species or hybrids. For example, anyone can do a top P. fowliei cross — but who cares? Nevertheless, if you try/beg/steal, you can find some nice genetics to work with.
The growing space aspect is really where the professionals have an advantage. In order to select the best plants of a cross, you need to grow up a large number to find really good ones. Of course, a large crop of plants requires a lot of space.
But there is one group of orchids where you can beat the breeders: brachys (OK, parvis, too).
Brachypetalums, such as niveum, leucochilum, concolor, and bellatulum, are all small plants that produce wonderfully charming flowers. You can easily grow a plant to blooming size in a 2-inch square pot.
Now, assume that 2% of a species cross will produce a plant clearly superior to its parents, and the rest will equal their parents or look like dogs. Well, if you bloom out 100 plants, you can expect two superior plants on average.
It is not that difficult for the home grower to grow up 100 brachy seedlings. Let’s do the math…
Area required for 100 plants
Assume:
4 sq. inches per pot.
100 plants
So: 4 x 100 = 400 sq. inches = 2.8 sq. ft.
That’s about the same area as four 8.5″ x 11″ pieces of paper, easily within the range of a growing shelf in a modest grow area.
So, if you grew up and bloomed 200 or even 300 plants bred from top parents, you’d very likely find some absolutely stellar specimens.
You can easily do this by obtaining flasks of high-quality plants.
So, to address each point on my previous list:
1) Start with parents of excellent potential, preferably from several different crosses
CHECK. Getting flasks of plants bred from high-quality parents is quite straightforward if you know where to look (e.g., right here).
2) Grow the plants big enough to carry a seed capsule.
CHECK. The grower of the flask has already done that!
3) When the plants flower, do the crosses (and enough crosses to cover a 50% non-fertilization rate).
CHECK. The grower of the flask has already done that!
4) Hope that your plants carry seed capsules to maturity.
CHECK. The flask you have is already proof that this step was successful.
5) Hope for germination.
CHECK. Same as above.
6) Make flasks from germinated plants.
Uh, CHECK again! Same as above.
7) Grow and flower at least 100 from each cross.
OK, this is where your growing efforts come in! You’ve been able to bypass steps one through six, and now, you can compete on a fairly even footing with professional breeders.
Well, you might ask, “Why couldn’t the breeders just bloom out more?” The answer is they could, and small-time breeders would get crushed.
But the reality is that the pros won’t do that. They need to devote time and effort to growing other stuff to sell, and are not likely to put all their eggs in one basket because of changing fashions and fads in the flower market. So the very scale and market requirements of the professional nurseries enables amateurs the opportunity to produce some really nice stuff!
If you’re interested in taking the plunge, check out these fantastic leucochilum flasks. These crosses are sure to produce many new winners!