Orchid propagation or also known as orchid multiplying is quite a complex process that may require a person some knowledge about the procedure and also the right kind of special equipments so it is fair to say that this is not a procedure that beginners can not easily do.
Orchid propagation should also be done with careful and sterile conditions.
There are a lot of ways to multiply or propagate your orchid and the most difficult among them is the one from propagating the seed but that is not our focus as of now as we are going to be discussing on the procedures of how to propagate orchids from the stem.
We will be going through steps that can make your glorious orchid plant grow to multiple magnificent plants.
First thing to consider would be the materials.
Do you have the right kind of equipments? Here is a check list of the needed items to do stem propagation: a rectangular plastic tray, a spray bottle, some square flasks where you can place those cuttings that you make, soft toothbrush, tweezers, labeling materials, distilled water, dish washing detergent, some sterile culture tubes with stoppers, rack to place your tubes, a pressure cooker, cotton, and agar agar.
After checking our materials, we are now set to work and of course, before working, you would have to wash your hands properly as we do not want to infect our precious orchids with any possible fungal infection.
Follow these procedures carefully: First is to prepare the mediums that you would be using for your propagation.
You would have to mix your medium carefully following these directions: boil the mixture and pour it into your cultural tubes around one and a half inches deep.
Put the tubes in the pressure cooker and cook for around 15-20 minutes.
Set the pressure cooker to have an internal temperature of around 15 PSIG.
After that, prepare a mixture of water, bleach, and dish soap with the corresponding ratio of 3:1 and about 2 drops of dish soap.
Apply this to the rectangular tray and pour the rest inside the spray bottle.
Next is to prepare more amount of the same mixture but this time, the ratio would be 9 parts water to 1 part bleach and 2 drops of dish soap and put this into the square flasks.
Secondly, spray the areas in your flasking case with the solution in your spray bottle and let it dry using sterile towels.
A word of caution: Do not proceed if your work area is not clean or sterile because of the possible fungal infections that can happen.
And then put everything: your prepared flasks, tubes, stoppers, tweezers, blades and rack inside the flasking case.
Next is to choose the orchid that has begun flowering or halfway until the flowers bloom and use a sterile blade to cut the stem and put it on to the tray.
Use the clean and soft toothbrush to scrub the removed stem from top to bottom carefully so that you will not damage the dormant bud.
After, put it back to the tray.
Now, put the tray with the stem inside the flasking case, and prepare for propagation.
Around 1 inch above and below the bud, using your sterile blade cut the stem at an angle.
Remove the bud's covering and place the prepared stem in the square flask and allow it to be soaked for around 15-20 minutes.
Shake the flasks every 5 minutes.
After, keep the stems at room temperature to prevent expanding or contracting of the air in the tubes and avoid sucking in of contaminants.
Then, transfer the stems to the culture tubes by using your tweezers inserting them just until the bud touch the media and then place the tubes to the rack.
Label the tubes so that you can identify which plant is inside.
Put the rack in your growing room that you have prepared.
After a few weeks, you will be able to see small leaves growing and when these leaves have reached half an inch with one a half inch long roots, take these buds out of their tubes and plant them in little pots.
Water them and do not let them dry out.
There are some easy ways to do orchid propagation so it is best that before you do it, you would best know about what kind of orchid you have and do some research on how to propagate that certain type.