Michael,
I agree with Aaron, You can't beat Phyto's one liter prepacked solutions for ease and simplicity as well as cost/effort.
Paul LeBlanc
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Sent: Monday, April 25, 2005 02:42 PM
>To: Orchids@orchidguide.com
>Subject: [OGD] Fertilizer formulae
>
>
>"Michael O'Connor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> queried thusly, sending the whole internet to its knees:
>
>> Many years back a friend of mine found a formula for
>> sowing orchid seed somewhere (?in a book).
>
>Hopefully not a comic book.
>
>> The method was a simple one based on fish emulsion, sugar,
>> agar and some other constituents. Does anybody have a
>> simple kitchen recipe (i.e. add one drop of "X" to a litre
>> of water into which you have mixed 5 heaped teaspoons of
>> sugar and 6 heaped teaspoons of agar) for media for sowing
>> orchid seed ?
>
>There are several. I've compiled a list of all the orchid flasking formulae I can get my grubby little keyboard on, and stuck them here:
>
>http://members.cox.net/lmlauman/osp/html/mcsg_database.html
>
>If you search for the keyword "improvised" it'll go faster. If you use Mozilla Firefox in conjunction with that control-f "find" routine, it'll go faster still.
>
>> I want a formula that an ordinary person without access to
>> scales/balances can make up in their home kitchen.
>
>Most plant tissue culture formulae are adjustments on the Murashige and Skoog paper in Physiol. Plant back in 1962. The main orchid mixes are based off of half strength MS, and get more dilute from there for most species (i.e., 35% label strength M&S), which makes sense since MS is pretty darned "hot" stuff.
>
>Because of some fairly straightforward nutritional issues, fertilizers and plant tissue culture media have developed some similar characteristics, and are used interchangeably by some people.
>
>However, for a lot less hassle and guesswork, you can purchase P668 (germination) and O156 (replate) from PhytoTech for $2.50 a liter from PhytoTech Labs (www.phytotechlab.com). The complimentary formulations with agar added escape me, but they're in the catalog there somewhere. Pre-measured, just add water. They also use MES buffer to keep the pH straight- no adjustment required. However, their O156 is a little "hot," except for phals. It should be used at 60-80% of label strength, but this will dilute the gelling agent (agar), so more must be added.
>
>They list no distributor for .nz, although they do have one in .au.
>
>Cheers,
>
>-AJHicks
>Chandler, AZ
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD)
>orchids@orchidguide.com
>http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
>
_______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
