Can i propagate my orchid

Your plant is basically doing half of the work of propagating it by itself! This comes in especially handy with the monopodial Phalaenopsis, which is a bit of a pain to propagate through topping but does commonly grow keikis.

Another common keiki producer is Dendrobium. These are used to store nutrients or water. Pseudobulbs that have gone inactive in terms of growth but still supply nutrients are referred to as back bulbs.

Back bulb propagation is pretty easy. You just separate the back bulb from the rhizome and pot it up into moist sphagnum. Once it seems to be rooting well, you can place it in a normal orchid medium. It can take quite a while for one to come out of dormancy and reach flowering age, but it works! Tip : Try not to divide while your orchid is flowering. As with most other houseplants, growing an orchid from seed is a propagation method best reserved for the most dedicated hobbyists.

Growing new orchids is simply easier through vegetative propagation the methods listed above. Growing from seed is a very slow process, but it is of course very rewarding if it works out! Getting the pods is the easy part — the rest of the process is what scares Orchids tend to be grown in flasks, with special nutrient mixtures and very careful handling of the babies. Tip : Wondering how to care for your brand new orchid after a successful propagation attempt? Have a look at the care guide for Phalaenopsis , the most popular orchid houseplant.

Division in orchids can include cutting away the offshoot from its source plant, rather than just pulling them apart like you can do with other plants, so again, cleanliness is highly recommended to see good results. A type of division which is different enough from other kinds of division to deserve its own section in this article, and which is almost entirely exclusive to orchids, is pseudo bulb division.

Separating a pseudo bulb from the orchid that made it will trigger it to start its own growth and give you another plant. Keikis form on a flowering stem as fully developed but tiny plants, complete with leaves, stems, and roots.

As you may be able to guess, these little tikes are very fragile and need to be given special care. The last way to propagate orchids, and the one that is shared with any species of orchid and any plant, is seeds. Orchid seeds are like dust, and need extremely specific conditions to grow, this separates their germination difficulty from that of other plants. If you have an indoor area or greenhouse, check out our complete article on how to grow orchids in a greenhouse.

Stem cuttings are the most prevalent within the ranks of orchids, as all the species mentioned above can be propagated with this method. Commercial orchid growers almost always propagate orchids by cutting the apical meristem.

The apical meristem is basically, the tip of any new growth, which can grow into any part of the plant—sort of like stem cells. The meristem is then grown in a sterile environment in a solution of agar which provides nutrients to the fledgling plant. Cut just below each node of aerial roots, leaving a stem above the roots for a new orchid to grow, or cut between the nodes so that there is a node in the middle of the stem. Grow these stem sections in a closed tray full of damp sphagnum moss.

In a couple of weeks, they should begin to root and can be potted out in their own pots and mix. You can either lay the stem sections on their sides or plant them upright in the moss, the important thing is that you keep their conditions humid. As a genus, orchids cannot be propagated by leaf cuttings, however, there have been a few successful attempts at growing Vandas from leaf cuttings.

If all is done in the cleanest way possible and the conditions are just right, the stem section will sometimes sprout new roots and continue growing. To prevent the parent Vanda from suffering, rap the cut section of the stem with sphagnum moss and a piece of plastic bag until the wound has callused.

However, if a bit of leaf or stem is attached to the root the chances of it growing into a new plant dramatically increase. For example, say you have a large orchid that is several years old and you would like another one in your collection.

Once you have separated this section of plant from the original, cover both open parts on both plants with clean sphagnum moss and duct tape until a callus forms. A few types of orchid that can be divided include: Cattleya, Paphiopedilium, Epidendrum and Lycaste.

This is much like the way in which grass multiplies itself by spreading out its roots and then sprouting new growth from the root tips. All you need to do is sever the offshoot from its parent and pot it by itself. You may wish to dust the cut areas with a fungicide to keep the plants from getting an infection.

You can induce the creation of an offshoot in some orchids by cutting the tip of an active root off and using rooting hormone powder or other growth powders. The other method of division is plantlets. Some orchids form these on the ends of special stems like spider plants do. Once good roots have been established, they should be ready to join the other orchids in the house. A few types of orchid that produce pseudo bulbs include- Brassavola, Cybidium, Laelia and Odontoglossum. There are a couple different types of pseudo bulbs; active pseudo bulbs, which have leaves and other growth, dormant pseudo bulbs, or back bulbs, which function as reserve food supply, and dead pseudo bulbs kidding, if the pseudo bulb is dead discard it.

Active pseudo bulbs can be divided from the parent plant similar to the way rhizome offshoots can, as long as you leave sufficient root material to sustain its growth. For the beginner, vegetative propagation is commonly used to build up one's orchid collection. Vegetative propagation can be accomplished in three ways; that is, by division, back bulbs and offshoots.

The technique of each differs primarily in the means of producing the new individual and in the early care. After a mature orchid plant has grown and flowered for several years the beginner finds the plant is too large for the size pot in which it is growing, and he faces two choices. He can either repot the plant into a larger container, or he can divide the plant into two or more separate individuals.

If the plant has but one lead that is, a new growth it can be divided by cutting the plant into groups of three or four pseudobulbs. The front group with the lead pseudobulb would be known as a "division. If a plant has several leads it can be divided in such a way that there will be one or more divisions and one or more back bulbs.

In other words, a division is a group of pseudobulbs which contains an active lead or new growth after the plant is broken up; whereas, the back bulbs are a group of old pseudobulbs that have no active lead, but on which there are one or more dormant "eyes" which may be forced into active growth. The illustration in Figure A shows the arrangement of the rhizomes and pseudo-bulbs of a Cattleya plant with but a single lead.

Such a plant may be divided by cutting through the rhizomes or root stock at the point indicated by the letter x. This will produce one division and two back bulbs as indicated. In Figure B a Cattleya plant with several leads is cut as indicated, producing three divisions and several back bulbs. The actual cutting of the rhizome is commonly done after the plant has flowered, but previous to repotting. Usually a V-shaped notch is cut more than half way through the rhizome. The plant then is not disturbed until the dormant "eyes" on the back bulbs begin to break.

As soon as the new growths are started the plant can be taken from its pot, broken up and repotted. After the division has been repotted, the plant should be carefully sprayed but not watered until root growth has become quite evident.

Plants may then be given more water and treated as established plants.