CSA-Journal-2016-04

Fig. 9. Mycorrhizomes of Cym goeringii
under lights. Micorrhizomes are ready to
be separated and transferred to shoot
initialization medium
Tahara as well, who beside working with
calanthe and other orchids did extensive
breeding of Jensoa Cymbidiums in Japan
(TAHARA 2001). By visiting a specialized
laboratory for Oriental cymbidiums
in Chengdu, run by Weihong Guo, I saw
that germination and mycorrhizome development
of these cymbidiums was done in
constant darkness. Proprietary media with
special mixes of plant growth regulators
are used by Guo. His plants produce stout
mycorrhizomes (Figures 11 and 12) which
develop strong shoots in vitro, and once
deflasked the first plants start to flower after
two years.
When in 2009 a Chinese customer
asked us to produce a larger number of
Cym. goeringii and Cym. faberi from selected
hand pollinated clones, I had to develop
our own method. Between several media
tested for germination of unripe seeds by far
the best was a Vacin & Went (V&W) modification
developed by Tahara for shoot ini-
Fig. 10 Sprouting mycorrhizomes of Cym
tortisepalum on H3P2 shoot initialization
medium
I used in the beginning was the longestablished
standard multipurpose media
for tropical orchids (MSO 1c, which is ½
strength Murashige & Skoog, and similar
in composition to Phytamax®; the
Japanese H3P2, which is 3 g/l Hyponex®
‘All-Purpose Plant Food’ 6.5-6-19 with 2
g/l peptone, 20 g/l sucrose and 7 g/l agar
respectively 2.5 g/l gellanum gum; V&W
with 40 mg/l FeNa-EDTA, 50-100 g/l potato,
trace elements, vitamins, as well as
sugar and gelling agent like in H3P2, and
MSO 2b for final replating, which is similar
to Phytamax® with banana) and daily
illumination of 10 hours or more resulted
in only a limited number of leafed seedlings.
The method is described like this in
literature and I learned it from Mochimu
Fig. 11 Mycorrhizomes of Cym goeringii in
dark culture
Fig. 12 Mycorrhizome of Cym goeringii in
dark culture
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