We have set various in situ experiments with epiphytic orchids seeds. We put fresh orchid seeds inside nylon mesh packets (ca. 1000 seeds per packet) along with a bit of moss (to improve moisture), and then located those packets on tree branches close to mother plants. After 1 year, we retrieved the packets and open them to locate germinating seeds, but moss and lichens have grown inside of the packets, plus there is a large accumulation of detritus and dirt, so it has been very difficult to locate the seeds (only finding
Dissecting microscope may help you to pick the seed. Even i did this experiment but we were not able to find symbiosis.
Thank you, Sujit. I forgot to mention that we have been using a dissecting microscope (even very sophisticated ones), but it is still very difficult to see the seeds within the huge amount of detritus and dirt. I was hoping someone knew a way to stain them or filter the "noise" (detritus, moss and lichen pieces, rocks, etc).
You are leaving the bags out too long. Germination occurs in 30 to 60 days in orchids, so check at these times, which will avoid the problems of debris accumulation
Hi Andrew, thank you for your answer.
Yes, seeds start germinating rather quickly. But as stated in the question, we are looking for later germination seeds and/or protocorms, when there might be fungal colonization.
Our prior experiments show that it requires from 10 to 16 months to get developing protocorms. Of course, time varies among species and with seed packet characteristics (size, type of mesh, accompanying materials like moss, etc.).
Cruz-Higareda et al. 2015 obtained protocorms from epiphytic orchid seeds after 4-5 months (
Germination and seedling establishment in orchids: a ...
https://academic.oup.com/aob/article/116/3/391/169761
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