Aimee, believe me, this is not to diminish your desire to grow from seed, but you really need a lot of experience to do this. I have grown orchids for forty years, and I wouldn't do it. That's not to say you can't, but you need a lot of knowledge and probably a good bit of money and time to make it work.

Perhaps others have experience in growing from seed and tissue culture. I never have, so would be the last person to ask how to do it.

Aimee I always remove the old bark/ sphagnum moss, cut off all the dead roots, and repot the orchid in a pre soaked brand new bark. The only thing that work well for me after repotting is when I keep the newly repotted orchid (with the new bark) soaked every week end for at least 15 minutes, in a water with a very tiny dose of orchid food and super thrive. then I let it drain totally before placing it back to its normal location. (My phals are all indoor and get the morning sun.) On weekdays, I just mist them. I keep this regimen until I see new sets of healthy roots.

Then when it looks healthy enough, I just water them weekly (with half dose of orchid food and and super thrive) with rain water preferably, if we have rain. I tend to give it blooming food (once out of every 4 weekly feedings) only closer to colder season. That's when mine usually bloom. Late spring to summer I want them to concentrate growing roots and leaves. Some would still bloom even without blooming food.

I lost a lot from repotting when I get lax with regular watering and misting my newly repotted Phals. In a colder area like yours, you might not need to mist as often because the bark may stay wet longer and orchid does not like wet feet.

On a side note, my weekend watering is done outside in the morning. My husband looks annoyed at me when he sees me haul my orchids outside to get "fresh air".

I do other things while they are soaking or when I'm letting the excess water drain.

I didn't know you can grow orchids from seeds. My Dendrobium has seed pod now but I've never seen a seedpod on Phal

I have never seen a seedpod. I have been growing orchids for over 40 years and have had well over 1000 orchids. Growing from seed, from what I know, is extremely difficult. It is best left to the professional growers to grow from seed or tissue culture.

I've only seen seed pods on my species Encyclia tampensis. It makes little hanging lantern pods every year after blooming. I guess the right pollinator finds it since that orchid is a native and living outside my pool cage. Hoping to see seeds from the Green Fly orchids some time, too. It's also a native but not to this part of the state, maybe.

Do you have pictures of those seed pods, Elaine?

I'm still trying to find them, Ken. I know I took some. Ah ha! Here they are.


They mature to brown over the summer, and at some point they burst and the seed sprays or flies out onto the tree branch, and all around. It takes months for them to mature.

Not that I will ever see any, but now I at least know what to look out for. Thanks, Elaine.

I see seed pods on many of my Orchids. If they are too many, I might cut them off as not to weaken the plant. I let others simply ripen and the seeds blow away. Interestingly enough, I see pods on my outside growing Bletillas all the time, but I have never seen anything resembling seedlings to emerge.

I assume seed pods develop after flowering, from the flower. Or do they develop independently of the flower? Regardless, how do they get pollinated when the plants are inside or in a greenhouse?

Yes, all seed pods develop from a flower and I think it's possible some are wind-pollinated. Most are pollinated by insects though, so in a greenhouse it's fairly unlikely those would get any.

You do keep your orchids outdoors in summer though, so if you had native orchid varieties you might get natural pollination by the appropriate insects, Ken.

Most of them get pollinated outside during the Summer months, but one could image a small fly doing the job on some of the smaller Pleurothallis or similar inside. I have right now a seed horn busting open on a Orbea variegata, (Asclepiad) that one was surely pollinated by a small fly during the indoor months in the greenhouse.

No natives I'm afraid. I will just enjoy seeing all of y'alls. Do any of you actually grow from seed? I always tell people, when they ask if I do or if they can, that it is difficult and probably pretty expensive to have a set-up where one could actually grow from seed or tissue culture. Perhaps it is not as difficult as I imagine.

I'm not absolutely sure either, Ken. But from what I've read it sounds like a very complicated and time-consuming task. As I said above, life's too short to start slow-growing plants from seed. Probably 5 or 6 years from seed to blooming size on some types. Even Phals are 3 or 4 years, I think. Maybe the miniatures take less time, or maybe they're just smaller the whole of their lives?

This is the reason I think it's such a shame that orchids are being grown as "throw away" plants that are only kept until their flowers fade or thrown away at the first sign of distress.

Thanks for the great advice!

From what I read online, it didn't really seem possible for the average person to grow Orchids from seed. It sounds like you'd need a sterilized lab and some pretty expensive equipment.
Elaine, I agree that life is too short to start such slow growing plants from seed. I planted Saguaro seeds a while ago not realizing how slowly they grow. I was advised that it is highly unlikely that I'll ever see them bloom in my life time. I'm 25 . Maybe my daughter will get to see it when she is 50 years old lol. I can't imagine going through all of that trouble, and then having to wait 5 more years for the Orchid to flower.

So many beautiful plants are sold as throw-away's. It's a shame. Today I saw a Vanda Orchid at Home Depot for $70

Vandas are beautiful but the prices are high, Ken is the only one I know that sells them at a reasonable price

I get seedpods from my Epidendrum and nun orchids too but I don't bother trying to grow them. They make a lot of babies every growing season and they bloom right away.

Thanks, Gigi, but I have only a handful of Vanda. I have two large and old ones (one's still a NOID) and the rest are seedling-size, mounted on woods. Oh, I forgot that I have the V. Mona Church, but because those are sub-compact plants, I don't think of them as vanda. The Mona's are blooming and my large V. Sunlight 'Orange' is loaded with buds.