First off - why V1?
No particular reason. I re-started orchid growing from seed when I retired in 2021. I have an interest (obsession!) to try and find a fungus / fungi that help in the germination of Ophrys, An pyramidalis and anthropoid Orchis.
During 2021/22 season I isolated a few. I had to think of a ‘name’ (existing ones being B1, A36 etc.) I nust decided to use s random letter and, like old style British car registration, use sequential letters for next year. I started with S1.
So in 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons I isolated a few fungi from root sections of growing plants. They all had similar characteristics: non fruiting mycelium, all were weak growing on basic oats agar (preferring to grow on the dry plastic surfaces) and none of them germinated anything I tried!
In 2023 (and 2024) I volunteered to speak at Hardy Orchid Society seed sowing workshop to talk about fungus isolation. I explain that you can isolate from root section but that in order to target getting a ‘germinating’ fungus it is best to isolate from a protocorm. The usual method being to bury packets of seed and retrieve them sequentially until you find a protocorm / seedling. I have tried this and, as you might guess, it is a bit hit and miss. I was unsuccessful.
At the meeting I was (re)introduced to the concept of cardboard sowing and pointed in the direction of the Cardboard Orchids Sowing Facebook group. I was told that members hsd success in germinating Ophrys. This then was a more likely way to find protocorms to isolate fungi.
September 2023 I started cardboard sowing. By November I had success. Protocorms of Ophrys apifera, an apifera hybrid and Spiranthes spiralis.
I transferred an spifera protocorm to agar and produced U1.
Familiar story - it was weak growing on basic oats agar and it didn’t germinate apifera nor morio in the ‘normal’ agar way.
The next part of the story is that Adrian (my old friend and orchid growing partner from back in the 1990s) started growing orchids again in 2023. He has a similar interest in growing from seed, developing low tech methods to make it accessible and a strong interest in the Ophrys genus.
To bounce ideas off each other and share enthusiasm really helps.
V1 starts with a particularly good Ophrys apifera germination on ‘cardboard medium’ sown 17 June 2024.
Adrian scooped out 4 scoops of mycelium from this tub and transferred onto 4 separate containers of sterilised soil with added strops of cardboard. Onto these was sown dry unsterilised seed of 4 different species.
Fungal hyphae grew away within a day.
One of the tubs sown with Ophrys sphegodes started germinating.
Adrian took a small section of cardboard from the tub and transferred to basic oats agar.
Fungal hyphae (and some bacterial contamination) grew away rapidly.
By replating the edge of the rapid fungal growth twice, the culture was ‘cleaned up’ to produce V1c
