Pleione 2016

[Alex]

To keep the Autumn Pleione momentum going, here are P. praecox and P. Macaque 'Erratic', which I really like. Excuse the iPhone photos please!

I am another who grows the Schreiner P. praecox alba with rather poor results, and I give it quite a lot of heat as I grow it in the Paphiopedilum section with a minimum of about 15C. It just doesn't seem very vigorous, which I've always assumed is a result of being selfed/inbred, as Paul suggests. I'd love to do better, as it is beautiful.

Alex

[Maren]

Hi Paul, regarding the white P. praecox, it would be interesting to know Camiel propagated the plants to produce them in such quantities so quickly that he was able to supply several nurseries. Was it: 

- from seed, which takes a long time and produces variable results ins smallish quantities or
- using tissue culture, which produces identical offspring quite quickly and in huge quantities.

Ian Butterfield has a theory that tissue culture propagated offspring has weakened growth characteristics. That might explain why your clones are so shy in multiplying.

Have you had any thoughts on this? and do you know what method Camiel uses?

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Maren,
I supplied Camiel with seed which he sowed in 2007. I think it was 2013 or thereabouts that he released them to other nurseries. So it was the "long" route he took. As the alba was selfed, the results should not really vary. The original plant that i selfed was from a wild source so its reluctance to increase isn't due to tissue culture problems. It may be simply that I haven't given them what they want. They have grown much better this year since we moved and I also kept them much warmer through the winter. The larger of my 2 bulbs has 2 flowering shoots so I should get two bulbs from this next year. Fingers crossed!

Paul

[sjusovare]

There is a 3rd way too, which includes both technics, Dutch growers have mastered it with several orchids in the epidendroidae sub-familly:

* Keeping the protocorms dividing as undifferentiate after sowing
* Splitting the resulting mass (as many times as you wish theoretically) and then let the divisions differenciate

That way you obtain a virtually unlimited number of clones from each seedling.

[Maren]

Hello Julien,

thank you, your third way is what I meant by tissue culture, though there may be a better technical term. It's a technique used very widely to propagate new hybrids in other plant families including vegetables.

It is very difficult to know why things are doing well in a season and not so well in another. The trouble is we don't monitor all the growing variables like light, temperature, feed, water quality etc etc and so we cannot look back and see exactly what we did or what happened when things went well / pear shaped.

[sjusovare]

Hello Maren,

Ian's observations somehow fit with an experiment we made here.
We did try that method with Ophrys seedlings, and it effectively did not work so well in the long run... The 1st divisions grow normally (exactly like when accidentally splitting the protocorms during an early replating), but the subsequent ones result in weak plants. However, we haven't determined yet whether this is caused by an unadapted culture media, by the technic used to prevent the protocorm to differenciate (basically making everything spin constantely on both axis, preventing it to find a center of gravity) or if it's forcing the protocorm to stay undifferenciate which just exhausts it.

[Maren]

Very interesting, Julien,

I wonder if we can find anyone who is actively working in this field. It would be great to get a deeper insight in these processes.

[sjusovare]

I think I know who I can ask, but I won't have an answer before next week (and I think she uses auxins in the media rather than the classical method)

[erf]

Hi Lars
I have two FS bulbs of praecox var. reichenbachiana waiting for you, it is the type that originally was imported as Pln. vietnamensis. But remenber Christmas willl be in December. :-)
Regards Erling

[Jules]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing your experience in Pleione with us!

[Mark Griffiths]

I finished lifting the pleiones today and noticed that one of the P. vesuvius had a new live root on it. I thought maybe a weed snuck in but no it's coming from the base of the pseudobulb. I also noticed that several of the buds seemed to be breaking through the sheath. Not sure what to do.

any ideas?

[sjusovare]

I'd put it in the frdige for dormancy and check on it regulary, if it threatens to start growth too early, pot it

[ashley]

Confirmation

[karel_t]

Nice plants Ashley 

Here is a just flowered pot of P. Tsingtau.
K.

[ashley]

Thanks Karel.  The autumn-flowering hybrids brighten a quiet time of year here, so I must look out for Tsingtau.