Young plants

Young plants

Buying a young plant instead of a full-grown orchid not only saves you money, but also gives you the special pleasure of seeing a young specimen bloom for the first time. But even if the first flowering is still to come, our young plants have already come a long way.

What are orchid young plants?

Young plants are orchid children that are visibly smaller than older specimens and have never flowered. Nevertheless, they are sometimes already several years old, as orchids grow very slowly compared to other houseplants. Nowadays, commercial orchid propagation is sometimes carried out in the laboratory, and so some of our youngest offshoots were initially grown from seeds or meristem tissue under sterile conditions in the laboratory. After one to two years in the cosy Petri dish, the orchid babies in our greenhouses have to be acclimatised to their later life on the windowsill, i.e. to lower humidity and nutrient supply and therefore higher germination and light exposure. They are still extremely sensitive, which is why a substrate that is as germ-free as possible, sufficient shade and a strictly balanced supply of water and nutrients are essential during this phase. This change in growing conditions, acclimatisation, is a critical process that requires a lot of time. After around three to five more years, they are then "established" and finally ready to be sent to your home.

The cultivation of young plants is somewhat quicker when we root cuttings at our company, for example in the case of Vanilla planifolia, when we cultivate young plants, for example for Phalaenopsis, or when we divide large plants, as we do for lady's slipper or Cattleya, among others. As these young plants were not grown in the laboratory, there is no need for acclimatisation.

It is now up to you to continue to patiently nurture the sprout. Depending on the variety, it will take a few more months, sometimes even a year or two, before it flowers for the first time. After acclimatisation, however, it will require the same care as a fully-grown orchid, so that further cultivation at home is uncomplicated.

When orchids produce offshoots

When orchids produce offshoots, they are called suckers. They form unexpectedly where you would have expected a new flower. This occurs relatively frequently with Dendrobium kingianum and Phalaenopsis. Other species sometimes form suckers when the mother plant is very weak or over-fertilised in order to ensure the survival of their species. The genotype of the scion corresponds to that of the mother, it is a clone. It can be grown in a new pot to produce a beautiful new plant with the same characteristics as the beloved mother plant.

Tips for growing the child

Firstly, the child is nourished by the flower stalk of the mother plant. As soon as it has at least two leaves and several roots of around three to five centimetres in length, it is ready to be separated from the mother plant and take care of itself. Use a clean, sharp knife to cut off the sprout and plant it in a small pot with a diameter of six to eight centimetres. It does not yet tolerate strong sunlight. The small orchid thrives best in a fine-grained substrate in a warm, shady place