Here are some instructions for those who have purchased orchids in-vitro from us in Bristol.If you have been helped to work in our lab and re-plate your seedlings, they will need about five-six months of growing indoors, away from bright sun (maybe on a book shelf) before de-flasking. If you have seedlings from the sales table then they are ready to de-flask as shown below.

1. Get you seedlings out of the flask.

Usually the seedlings will ease out as one mass. A finger/ spoon or plant label may help. If they don’t want to come out some tepid water will soften the agar and make it easier.

2. Rinse off the agar – We rinse gently in lukewarm water with a little washing up liquid in it. Try hard not to damage the seedlings. It doesn’t matter if some of the agar is left behind

 3.Plant your seedlings in a community pot – We plant all the seedlings from a flask in one to three community pots. Ease compost around the seedlings. We use a similar compost for community pots as for adult plants comprising course bark sphagnum moss and perlite. (this makes them easier to care for as we are used to this compost).

4.Move plants into individual pots – We move seedlings from the community pot to individual pots (or mounts) between 6 months and 2 years after de-flasking when they are growing well and have decent roots.