Calypso Orchid in the News

I am finally posting the link to the article that was in the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle Garden Section. I was quite thrilled and here it is...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/19/HO0HVIC67.DTL

The Calypso are emerging and the rains are here. I am more than ever enjoying the cloud mist here in the forest. It collects on the trees and drips to the ground. The weed season has begun in the garden. It is green and wet here in the winter and brown and dry in the summer.

The 2008 Calypso Orchid seed is harvested

The last two years here in Mendocino County have been very dry. The Calypso did not flower heavily and the hand pollination was an all time low. These things combined to produce a very small harvest of seed. The lilium rubescen at my friends house set four capsules and I have them in silk wrappers to save the seed. One of my calypso transplants grew a pup this last spring so I can now crow about having successfully transplanted Calypso. There a a few secrets I will tell here soon. The in vitro project has nothing to report. No news on the in situ sowings.

The lily seedlings have gone underground. It is so hard to watch them go brown and wither and not let myself water them. I haven't watered them and I will do a jig when they, if they, come back. I planted four lily seed in each four inch pot. I did not get full germination so I will be looking at possibly emerging plants of a year in age difference. I am so glad to have found the information that first year lily seedlings have a single grasslike blade. It is true, one tiny fragile blade all the first year. So I am counting on being able to spot the older seedlings by a different more lily like leaf and then I can move them up into larger pots for growing on another year. I will be back when I can share my transplanting secrets.

Calypso bulbosa in vitro update

I said I would tell all my mistakes and messes. I had said in an earlier post that BM-2 medium with 20% coconut water was the best and proven formula for Calypso in vitro. I then went searching for the actual info at the source and got my wires crossed. I corrected myself in error and changed the coconut water to 20ml per liter. That would be 2%. I actually did a batch of flasks with this and I will sow them in a few days. The 20% was actually what my source had recommended. But now, I have actually in my possession hard evidence that 10% coconut works. I have seedlings sent to me from a lab for growing on.

I have heard from a researcher in Europe that large percentages of coconut can have mutating effects resulting in problems for the development of the corms and that they are discouraged at using it. I am slowly closing in on what works. It may turn out that the 2% coconut water works fine but I am sure the 10% works. I am going to do a run of bm-2 with 10% coconut and 2gms charcoal per liter in a few days to cook up the waters and tools for the sowing of the 2% coconut medium.

Is this confusing? Join the club. I stay that way most of the time. This flasking is a lot to learn. This is the first time I have felt challenged enough by propagation to keep serious notes. That's how I am finding out what a vulnerable human I am. It is humbling. I can read back and check my calculations and drop my jaw in wonder at how I arrived at the wrong conclusion with such confidence. Going so far as to tell other people how to do something and having my wires crossed. Humbling.

Tomorrow I will dump the first two flaskings I did with BM-1. I did those in April. Almost 6 months ago. There is still no contamination but there is no growth, either. The bm-2 without coconut is now two and a half months old and shows no promise. Shows no contamination either, I suppose I should be thankful for that. All three of the first batches had a couple of tablespoons of liquid sloshing around in them before sowing. I cooked the last batch, #4 the full time for boiling and it is all firm. Much better. I am learning to follow directions. I also put half as much medium, 50ml in each half pint jar so I can see better in there.

So, this is the correction. If any of my seed customers over on the web site feel like I steered them wrong I hope they will read the part again about how I am new to this, very new. I do however feel a certain responsibility if my advice has led to failure. Who knows, maybe this is divine intervention and 2% is ideal. Please get it touch if you feel the need.

Chimaphila pipsissewa and Lilium rubescen

A quick update on the lily project-I got 16 seeds of the western native lilium rubescens from my friend's wild lillies. They are all planted in the mix in four inch pots. My friend, let's call her Paula, because that is her name, has come up with another project for me. Chimaphila umbellata. This is a shade loving perennial that grows around here and is just way too cute not to try and grow. Turns out it is also fungus dependent and a strange little wintergreen beauty. I will post some links to pictures I like on other websites of pipsissewa and try to write more about what an interesting little plant THAT one is. I am very happy to discover that the seed capsules often persist through the winter so I will be out hiking trying to track some down.

The rains have come today. I checked the Calypso yesterday and the leaves are poking up and beginning to unfurl. We have only had about a quarter of an inch of rain until today but it or something has triggered the new calypso growth season. Nothing to report in my seeded boxes. I have noticed that the area under the redwoods where the calypso grow has been damp in the mornings from fog drip. Just damp under the overhanging branches in a large circle. Ground outside the dripline has been bone dry.

I again tossed the Calypso seed capsules and wraps and seed that was not selected for market onto the ground in a patch of dirt that has no Calypso growing for at least two feet. If this patch is filled with babies like the other I will do a massive sowing on the forest floor with no additional leaf mold or mulch. All of the other seed beds I amended somehow with additional leaf mold or mulch are non events so far. It may be that I just need to toss the seed...what a concept. It is hard to restrain myself from manipulating somehow and will be a very different approach to gardening for me. Humbling to say the least.

Lilium rubescens and Calypso bulbosa Orchid

Welcome to all the folks who have found me here and to all my returning visitors! The website has translation abilities now and there are times my hit counter looks like the United Nations. I am going to try and post a map from Wiki on Calypso bulbosa global
occurrence. I think it is a great map and I need to post a link to the wiki page I got it from in order to be able to republish it. Here is the link...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calypso_orchid

and above is the map:posting successful.

Hello and I am back. I am not sure if I am at a fork in the road, a turn in the road, or a convergence of fate. I am adding a new item to the ONE item I already have at

http:/calypsoorchid.com

Years ago I became enchanted with the Calypso orchid, native to my area. I have tried over the last three years to coax seed to germinate using in situ and this year, in vitro germination. I am not giving up. In fact I have a whole new slant on how to grow Calypso from seed in soil mix. I have a friend nearby who has been after me to come and see her wild Redwood lillies. Well, I finally got over there last month and was able to wrap one seed pod. Note to self:Check that pod. I began the usual web searching trying to gather information on the L. rubescens. Wouldn't you just know it. She is another diva of the highest order with delayed hypogeal germination, a deep distaste for disturbance and a serious lack of seed or plants available. AND Lilium rubescens is listed as endangered just north of here in Oregon.

I took the bait hook line and sinker. I just can't resist a challenge I guess. Especially when it involves a local native with a world class fragrance and gorgeous blooms and in need of help. Not wanting to wait for the pod to ripen I ordered two grams of last year's seed from JLHudson seed company. When it arrived I estimated the seed count at about 400. A good start. I put the seed in the freezer, joined the yahoo lily group and got deep in over my head very quickly. But I have surfaced again!

Here is what I did. I made a peat and vermiculite based soilless mix with charcoal and a trace of bonemeal. I put this, 15 gallons of mix, in garbage bags with water to moisten to the just right squeeze test, no drips, just damp. I then put a light layer of granulated charcoal in the bottom of each four inch pot, topped it up with soilless mix, leveled it off and gave it a thump on the bench to settle the mix about a half inch down from the rim.

The seeds being a year old I decided I needed extra assistance to have a chance at any kind of even germination. I used a 1% bleach solution for 20 minutes on the seed. They sure leached brown into the water. I rinsed three times, all distilled water, and then gave a 24 hour soak in the dark except for agitating and peeking at the seeds. I also rinsed them three more times when the water got to looking like weak black tea. This step was to leach the dormancy regulators from the seed coat and get the seeds to start imbibing. It worked great. They were noticably plumper and the seed skin was ballooning from absorbed water. I drained them on a paper towel and kept them moist with a sprayer while I put them four each to the four inch pots. I sprinkled a little mix over the seeds and topped the pots with perlite to keep them clean and moist.

While I was doing all this I had a revelation. Why not try the same idea with Calypso and instead of soilless I used soil and leaf mold from near other Calypso, about a gallon. I added the peat and vermiculite and bonemeal, same as the lillies and spread this mix in 3 inch deep cell packs, 72 cells to a tray and topped them with perlite. Then I watered with rain water and put the trays in plastic bags. Each of the lily pots is in it's own ziplock but the Calypso are in trays of cells so I used plastic trash bags.

Turns out that both of these local beauties like a dark cool rest for initial germination and resent transplanting. I am dreaming of a flower bed in the shade of the redwoods where Calypso and Lilium rubescens bloom with rhododendrons. Can you imagine how beautiful and fragrant such a garden would be? The Calypso would bloom just before the rhododendrons and be followed by the lily. Calypso blooms here for weeks and the lily follows as the rhododendrons fade. Someone should do this combination of shade loving flowers, maybe add Dicentra...bleeding heart and ferns....

If this works I will be very happy. I am ordering another two grams of lily seed when this year's seed comes in and still waiting on the local pod to ripen. So, it turns out that by adding another native to my line up I may have been gifted with the technique required to germinate Calypso.

Two falls ago, when the Calypso seed was clean and dry and all in the refrigerator I did my usual little ritual of taking the old seed cases and the seed which fell from the pod and missed the funnel, and the rejected pods out to the woods and tossed them and their wrappings under a redwood tree with Calypso growing nearby but none in the spot I tossed the seed. I know this because I have been all over the spot crawling around pollinating caged Calypso for three years and it has always been bare there.This spot was crowded with baby Calypso leaves last fall, one year later. I don't know what happened there but this fall when I took the waste out I again tossed it near other Calypso in a spot I know has been bare for three years, just like the other. If this spot shows many new plants I will have new information to report on the Calypso bulbosa life cycle.

So I am wondering if I should start a new blog for Lilium rubescens or just try and cover both of them here? Any comments on preferences?

I am hoping to get a picture of my new plant laboratory. It is a 1964 Avion 24 foot travel trailer parked in the shade of the redwood trees. It stays nice and cool and dark and I think the Divas like it in there. So that is what I have been up to! Don't expect any products from the lily for about three years. Sales of Calypso seed manage to pay my internet and web site fees for now. This will be a labor of love for a few more years....more soon! Hope to hear from you soon.

After writing all of this I had to go back and delete all my exclamation points...blogger won't let us use exclamation points. It is like trying to talk without using my hands...(exclamation point)

All my best,
Calypsogrower

The Calypso Orchid seed break through

Sure enough, it's time for an update. Today I decided to get back to flasking orchid seed. As a warm up I went through old emails and documents and new emails to get in the mood. I am looking at a flasking of orchid seed on 9 jars I prepared in April. The batch is of terrestrial orchid medium with my as yet unproven monkeying with the ph. I hope everyone remembers I am a newbie to flasking and intend to post my failures, bad ideas, and my successes. I stated in an earlier post that I made up bm-1 medium with 20 PER CENT coconut water. I wanted to go back and verify the recipe at it's source in my notes and all I was able to find was the advice to use 20ml coconut water per total of one liter medium. So the batch of ten I brew today will be BM-2 with the 20ml coconut water. This is the formula that has been germinating like gang busters for other people and I need to try it out flasking at home. I can only marvel at how and why I methodically tried the other three recipes for posterity before doing the one that has been proven to work. So now I am behind nearly four months on the sowing of orchid seed in the medium that has the best chance of success ever with Calypso orchid seed. I will report on the older flasked orchid seed as soon as there is a change to report. Who the heck knows what will happen in those jars?

So the first hurdle to producing Calypso bulbosa orchids for sale has been breached. We know how to germinate the seed with some certainty. We have found one way that works. The next hurdle is the replate. I haven't heard anything on this except making sure they have a cool dark resting period of a few weeks after replate or transplant. After the replate comes transplanting and if all goes well this little group of Calypso researchers, and you know who you are, will make history in orchid species preservation.

Let us not forget that I am also watching my in situ orchid seed beds and that a more nursery style operation is more to my liking.

This year's harvest of Calypso orchid seed was once again just a great time. I will be posting more pictures soon and I invite everyone to go to the official Calypso Orchid web site and see the new pictures of the in vitro equipment and the two double Calypso flowers on one stem.

Homemade Vacuum for Floating Seeds!

My homemade glovebox with everything I might possibly need and as it turned out way too much stuff! The second run of flasking today had more free space in the box. The big surprise for me was how much Calypso orchid seed floats! I had read about putting together some equipment to draw a vacuum on floating seed but I sure didn't have anything even close to what Aaron Hicks describes in his orchid flasking manual. After more than two days in the sugar and wetting agent solution most of the seed was still floating and I was getting very concerned about being able to draw off the solutions in the glovebox. I knew I would have on clumsy gloves and cramped conditions. What I didn't know was that all my pipettes had melted in the second ill fated batch of flasks I cooked. I found this out when I opened the foil packets in the glovebox!

Anyway, back to the floating seed. I created a vacuum by sucking on the glass test tubes holding the seed in the sugar water. I popped off the rubber stopper and put the open end in my mouth and held a strong suction for about 15 seconds. I then recapped the tube, gave it a shake and sucked on the next one. I needed to do each tube about five times to get all or most of the seed to sink. I left one tube alone as a control just to see and sure enough that one was tougher to decant. I used a huge long hypodermic needle for drawing up the solutions and kept a bowl of straight bleach to draw up in the needle and slosh around the outside for sterilizing.

So today I have 10 flasks in an ice chest going outside into a cool shed for now. There is something very fun about doing this and I am hoping for some small success to encourage me to continue. I have bleach stains on a few things, a wiped out tablecloth and a rash on my arm from the bleach....and there was that blister on my upper lip from sucking on the tubes! I applied ice to my sore lip and perfected my technique on the second flasking run. The tubes then went into the glove box and the rest of the work was a kind of meditation on being methodical.

Now we wait. The bad news will come fast. Contaminated flasks are bound to happen the first time. The good news will take much longer, about four months for the first germination. I will get back here and post any new developments. Meantime I have 9 more flasks that I am watching for a week to see if they are clean and then I will sow them. This is the batch of flasks that had the busted flask and the medium affected the pressure cooking temperature.