Detailed Explanation of Seed Sowing Methods and Seedling Cultivation Techniques for Anoectochilus

When it comes to Anoectochilus, we wonder whether everyone knows anything about its seeds. As is well known, wild Anoectochilus is becoming increasingly scarce, and Anoectochilus is becoming more and more expensive. So how should we plant and cultivate Anoectochilus seeds? Let us then take a look together at the cultivation techniques for Anoectochilus and learn to grow Anoectochilus.

How to Sow Anoectochilus Seeds

The seeds of Anoectochilus are extremely fine, and each seed contains only one incompletely developed embryo, with very low germination capacity. In addition, the seed coat does not readily absorb water, so sowing by conventional methods will not cause germination. Therefore, orchid mycorrhizal fungi or artificial culture media are needed to supply nutrients before germination can occur. For sowing, it is best to select fruit that has not yet split open. After sterilizing the surface with 75% alcohol, take out the seeds, soak them in 10% sodium hypochlorite for 5-10 minutes, remove them and rinse them 3 times with sterile water, then sow them in culture bottles containing culture medium, and place them in a dark culture room with the temperature maintained at about 25C. After they begin to sprout, move them into the light, and they can then form protocorms. From sowing to transplanting, Anoectochilus takes half a year to one year. Tissue culture has already been successfully achieved, and where conditions permit, this method can be used for propagation.

Anoectochilus Seedling Cultivation Techniques

1. Preparing the culture medium: Prepare the culture medium according to the specific formula requirements, package the prepared medium well, and place it in an autoclave for sterilization. The sterilized medium can either be used directly or stored in a sterile inoculation room for later use, but the storage time should not exceed two weeks.

2. Cutting explants and sterile inoculation: Under sterile conditions, cut explants of appropriate length from superior mother plants (stem tips, stem segments, leaves, buds, roots), inoculate them into the culture medium, and place them in the culture room for induction.

3. Cluster shoot induction and differentiation induction: Under a culture room temperature of 20-28°C and 12-16 hours of illumination from fluorescent lamps with a light intensity of 3000-4000 Lux, and at the same time under the action of high-concentration cytokinins and low-concentration auxins in the culture medium, the explants are prompted to differentiate into clustered shoots.

4. Subculture proliferation: After clustered shoots have grown in the culture medium for a period of time (usually 20-30 days), as the nutrients in the medium are consumed, they must be transferred to fresh medium for culture, namely subculture. In order to expand the propagation speed and propagation coefficient, subculture transfer must be carried out. By changing the culture conditions, such as culturing for several days at a lower temperature and then transferring to another higher temperature for several days, or by liquid shaking culture for a certain period of time, the proliferation speed can be significantly increased.

5. Rooting induction: When the shoots have grown to a certain height, transfer them to rooting medium with a higher auxin concentration to continue culturing. First subject the young shoots to dark culture for one week, then transfer them to normal light, or shorten the light period, which can advance rooting and increase the rooting rate and rooting speed.

6. Transplanting and hardening of young seedlings: Move the rooted young seedlings from the culture room to outdoor soil and cultivate them into qualified afforestation seedlings.

7. Grading of young seedlings: According to the quality indicators of young seedlings, grade the young seedlings. Grade I and Grade II seedlings should be transplanted at the proper time, while Grade III seedlings should continue to be cultured.

8. Hardening: Usually, hardening is carried out for about one week by increasing light, or a retardant is added to the culture medium. 1-2 days before transplanting, move the young seedlings together with the culture bottles from the culture room to the greenhouse, and open the bottle stoppers.

9. Transplanting: When the root system has grown to about 1 cm, carefully take the young seedlings out of the culture bottles, wash off the culture medium with clean water, and by all means avoid injuring the plants. First soak the young seedlings in a relatively dilute sodium sulfate solution for several minutes before transplanting, spray thoroughly with water, and cover with plastic film to protect against wind and preserve moisture.

10. Management after transplanting: In the early period after transplanting, provide appropriate shading to prevent direct sunlight, then gradually increase the light duration and intensity. Keep the temperature controlled at 20-30°C, water appropriately to preserve moisture, control soil moisture, and gradually implement full light exposure. After a period of hardening, when the seedlings have fully adapted to the natural environmental conditions, they can be transplanted into light substrate mesh bags, and when the seedlings meet the standards, they can leave the nursery.

How to Prevent and Control Pests and Diseases in Anoectochilus

I. Insect pests

1. Mollusks: snails and slugs. They eat the soft tissues of Anoectochilus such as root tips and tender buds, seriously affecting growth.

2. Red spider mites and mites. Adults and nymphs suck sap on the leaves, causing small yellow spots to appear on the damaged leaf surface. In severe cases, the leaves turn yellow and scorched, until they fall off, and the plant dies.

3. Small cutworms. Before the 3rd instar, the larvae feed on the heart leaves and leaves of Anoectochilus, eating them into small notches or a net-like hole pattern. After the 3rd instar, the larvae bite through the young stems of Anoectochilus seedlings near the ground, causing missing plants and broken rows.

4. Mole crickets. They bite and feed on the roots and stems of seedlings in the soil, causing messy, tangled broken heads, resulting in seedling death, and they also make many raised tunnels in the surface soil, causing the seedling roots to separate from the soil, lose water, dry up and die.

II. Diseases

1. Damping-off. It is mainly caused by Fusarium damage. Yellow-brown water-soaked lesions appear at the base of the stem of diseased seedlings, quickly develop around the stem in a ring, and the diseased tissue rots, dries up, and constricts into a thread-like shape. The disease develops rapidly, and the seedlings quickly lodge and die, showing damping-off.

2. Soft rot. It is a bacterial disease, mainly damaging the inner stem of the middle and lower parts and the petioles of leaves near the ground surface. In the early stage of the disease, it is very difficult to detect. In the middle stage, brown necrotic spots appear on the epidermis about 3 cm from the stem base, and brown wet rot appears on the leaf veins. The leaves in the middle and lower parts of the plant turn yellow and appear wilted under high temperature. In the later stage, the whole plant wilts and dries up while remaining upright, and breaks easily when lightly bent by hand.

Growing Conditions for Anoectochilus

1. Site selection and shed construction: For Anoectochilus cultivation, choose an open terrain facing south, surrounded by tall broadleaf forest, and far from pollution sources, and build a shed with strong wind resistance. Cover the top and surroundings of the shed first with film and then with shade netting to facilitate control of temperature, light, and humidity inside the shed.

2. Installing iron racks: In Anoectochilus production, iron growing racks are usually used to hold growing trays, with the cultivation substrate placed in the trays. The iron racks are 1 m wide and 1.5 m high, with length determined by the shed, divided into 3 growing tiers, with 45 cm between tiers, and 60-80 cm maintained between two rows of iron racks.

3. Crop rotation arrangement: In production, Anoectochilus is usually grown two seasons a year. The first season is transplanted in early March and harvested in late June; the second season is transplanted in early September and harvested in late December, ensuring that the plants grow in the soil for more than 4 months, so as to increase yield and the medicinal components of the product.

4. Substrate selection: For Anoectochilus cultivation, the cultivation substrate is usually prepared in the ratio of peat soil : rice husk : fine sand = 10:1:1. After solar sterilization of the cultivation substrate, add 5-7.5 kg of slaked lime or an appropriate amount of 50% carbendazim wettable powder to every 100 kg of cultivation substrate and mix well.

The growing environment of Anoectochilus is extremely demanding, and its requirements for natural forest trees are also extremely high. For us, the cost of artificial cultivation of Anoectochilus is also very high. In cultivating Anoectochilus, we should also pay attention to many aspects, and in terms of seedling cultivation techniques, it is not something that can be learned in a day.