Hi Group, Many thanks for all the help I have received to my questions and for those that have also taken the time to contact me privately. Your time and help is greatly appreciated.
I must admit that I have gone around and around on this matter with my own thoughts, but it seems the general consensus is that the roots are the 'driving force' to achieving good plant development. With that established, the necessary leaf development is possible and subsequent flowering inducible. This would seem to loosely follow in-vitro growth responses which might give some insight also. I do know root development is very important to producing good quality in-vitro seedlings and have focused on that with our work at TQPL, where we produce some of the largest roots on Paphs around, as anyone who has seen our flasks will know. In-vitro plants do rely less on leaf area for growth, as the photosynthetic pathways are different and the carbon rich media has a controlling influence on that metabolism. In simple terms flasking media controls growth and the influence of light is more for plant orientation and the development of leaves and shoots that eventually provide a photosynthetic pathway on deflasking. My focus ideas seem to have shifted to improving the growth rate of the roots of the plants on the bench. It has been mentioned before on OGD that the effect of bottom heat is beneficial to plant growth. I indeed wonder if higher root temperatures and presumably high root metabolism, encouraged by such methods, are the reason why warmth loving orchids grow so quickly with such a heating method and indeed it all comes back to the root system. Many thanks again. With regards Alan L Winthrop. http://www.tissuequickplantlabs.com/ _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
