Technically the title of this post is wrong.  It’s day 2 today, although I didn’t write about day 1 yesterday due to tiredness!  To give you an idea of the dedication we have to update you all; it’s now 5:45 and I’m sitting at my laptop drinking coffee!

‘WOW’ is the only word I can use to describe the Big Bang Fair!  WOW Indeed!  My stand has been judged twice today and I’m looking forward to the results this evening.  I’ve been told that our Lab team have also had a very busy time, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t seen them!

Stand 28 & 29

The show is now sold out and a total of 20,000 people will be coming through the doors over the three days (including yesterday).  It really is amazing.  If you’re looking for more photos, have a look at the Big Bang Fair’s Facebook Group.

As you may be aware we are in manchester from now until Saturday for two reasons:

1) I (Luke Barnes) am in the finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition (intermediate age category, science devision).  This means that I have a little display up here, displaying my work on Changing orchid altitudes in the Sikkim Himalayas.

2) We (Writhlington Orchid Project) have a stand demonstrating our STEM Club (Science, technology, engineering & maths).  This will include demonstrations of Micropropagation of Orchids at the show, as well as talking to people about our project.

I look forward to keeping you up to date on both of these ’strands’ or our presence at the Big Bang.  It looks so far like it’s going to be an amazing event!

Until next time!

The 'snow' moment on the green screen

The following pictures will hopefully give you an idea of what our green-screen (or ‘chroma key’ as it’s known as in the ‘Film Biz’) filming was like.  Come behind the scenes  screens with us at WSBEOrchids!

You may or may not know that when filming in front of a green screen (or cloth in our case) you can make yourself appear to be anywhere in the world.  We tried this today and think that the results are quite impressive!

Pollinating Cattleya percivaliana

Seedlings of Cattleya species are always popular and we find most of them produce good strong seedlings. In the photo you can see that Heather is using a thin stick to transfer pollen to the stigmatic surface. If pollination is successful she will see the seed capsule swelling behind the flower in a week or so. The seed will be ripe and ready to sow in about twelve months. We will keep you informed on progress.

This inset was, however, to be unlike any preceding it.  We turned the classroom into a workshop and set about building a mountain.  This would be no ordinary mountain though!  This mountain would be ‘The Himalayas’ and have space for two orchids at the correct altitudes on the scale.  It would also have a table that is exactly big enough for a laptop and a large book.

No easy task, I’m sure you’ll agree, but a large piece of MDF, some chicken wire and a lot of modrock later (yes – an awful lot of modrock!) we had it finished!

This model will make up the center piece for my entry in the National Science Competition at The Big Bang on the 10th-13th March this year.  The before, during, and after shots of this building project can be found below or at our Picasa web Albums.

Coelogyne cristata is a species our expedition to Sikkim had the great pleasure of finding in the wildin April 2009 growing at 1200m in mossy forest near Tinkitam. This Writhlington plant is really heavy. We aren’t quite sure how we will carry it to the new greenhouse next month but are confident we will think of something.

This is the same species flowering in the Himalayas above excited students Luke B and Luke S.

I say ‘we’… what I really mean is the greenhouse team. My Lab team, myself included, have done very little in preparation so far – mostly because our equipment is already in boxes!

Anyway, the greenhouse teem have been starting to sort plants into the new, 5 climatic zone system that will be used in the new greenhouses. This is no simple task. At present we have 4ish ‘climatic zones’. These are based on the realisation that ‘further from the boiler is colder’. The new greenhouses will not only have a more advanced temperature control system, but they will also be divided geographically, rather than climatically.

This means that the greenhouses will by much easier to learn from, as plants from the same area, for example Guatemala, will be all together in the section ‘Warm Americas’.

The mass sorting operation, characterised by yellow labels!

I will mention that there are lots of seeds in one seed pod.  Hundreds of them! Thousands and, in many cases, millions!  All of this seed needs sorting before it can be sown.

Zoe and Heather viability testing seed

All of our seed is stored in the fridge in small, labeled jars, but before it can be refrigerated it must be dried.  Now we have a hi-tech seed drying chamber to do this in a matter of days, but in the past the seed had to be left in paper envelopes, in a large box on a top shelf.  We found one such box today and have been going through the seed, packet by packet, testing for viability.

Viability testing is one of the most useful things we do in the labs.  Sure, sowing the seed is important, as is splitting the seeds up, but if the seed is not viable, i.e. not going to germinate anyway, there is no point in it even being sown.  For this reason, before it is refrigerated, all seed must be viability tested.

As hi-tech as it sounds, viability testing is a relatively simple task.  A small sample of the seed is placed on a microscope slide and examined.  Under a microscope, it is clear whether or not an embryo is present in the seed.  No embryo = non-viable seed.

1. Food

It is a well known fact that orchid growers need food!  Take our bunch (no pun intended) at the orchid project.  Together, they eat a very large amount of food – and some of this might be a banana…

2. Growing Media

Bananas have a unique combination of vitamins and minerals that orchids love – especially the young seedlings in the lab.  That’s why four large bananas go into each batch of our agar jelly that we prepare for replating in the lab.  The media also contains sugar, plant food and rooting hormone.  All of this seems to give our seeds the best start possible.

3. Friction reducing devices

We’ve all seen it on a cartoon where one of the characters slips on a banana peel.  We’ve all laughed, but have any of us actually tried it?  We have!  Through extensive testing we have concluded that banana skins are exceptionally good at making any object, regardless of mass, slide across the class room floor with ease!

Zoe and Heather demonstrating this amazing use of bananas!

Tests have shown that four pieces of banana peel, one under each leg of a stool, can easily carry a Year 7 (or 8,9,10 or 11) across the classroom floor!  This technique is as effective with a table, in which case multiple students can be carried at once!

In our lab – we use agar jelly as a replacement for the fungas, meaning we can have every single seed germinate, where as only 10 may germinate in the wild.  More information on our techniques can be found in our media libraries.

While in Cape Town in 2007 we linked with a school in the area, but also with local growers.  Lorna in particular has been brilliant at supplying seed of the leopard orchid Anselia africana.  When she e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago and first told me that she had 9 mature pods I was very excited!  Anselia africana is a very nice plant that is easy to sow and grows well in our lab.

I was also eager to find out just what 9 seed pods worth of seed looked like!  We were all very impressed when the envelope was packed full of seed.  This is such a brilliant example Darwin’s prediction that, if left to their own devices, and if every seed germinated – orchids would take over the world in three generations!

Quite a large pile of orchid seed!

A big, big Thank-You to Lorna, and also to our other partners across the globe! We couldn’t do it without you!

Snow Angels!

As you can see, they’ve turned out quite well!  Who said school is no fun!? Especially in the snow!

The greenhouse in snow.

Unlike students, plants don’t like having a ’snow day’ and as a result – plant people have to be in looking after them!  This, of course, doesn’t mean that there’s no playing in the snow.

First we must check the greenhouse!  This is particularly fun as it involves trudging 11.5cm (4.5″) of snow.  The greenhouse it’self has escaped seriouse temperature drop as it has a thick blanket of snow covering it.

The first step is to sterilse a pair of secateurs by flaming them. This stops the spread of virus disease. New the plant is cut into parts each with at least three healthy pseudobulbs.

This is one new plant here.

The old plant divided into four flowering size large plants, one small plant and three old bulbs seemed firm and healthy and so were potted with the hope that they might develop a new plant from dormant eyes at their bases. This is called back bulb propagation.

The large plants were all potted into 12cm hanging baskets in a mix of sphagnum moss, bark and perlite. The small plant and the back bulbs were potted into 7cm pots.

Next year we can look forward to some lovely new growths and flowers around November like the one below.

Fambong Lho

New year is a time we think about all the lovely people we work with around the world. So Happy New Year to our friends in Durban both at the Botanic Garden and at West Park School. Happy New Year as well  to the pupils and staff at the Erica Primary School in Cape Town, to Souk and Eddie in Laos, to John, Ian and Judy in Belize, to Ana-Silvia and Federico in Guatemala, to Federico, Vannessa, Franco, Kerry and Bob in Costa Rica, to Izabel, David and Carlhinos in Brazil and all our friends in Sikkim, especially Mohan and Ganden who are second and fifth from the left in this lovely photo from our 2009 expedition to Sikkim. This is the log house at the Fambong Lho reserve in the mountains above Gangtok. Finally a Happy New year to all of you who read our blogs on the RHS. We hope to see you all sometime in 2010

Sophronitis cernua

One of the real pleasures of having a greenhouse is escaping those cold gloomy winter days into your own little tropical paradise. This morning I escaped to Brazil thanks to Sophronitis cernua. I had the pleasure of seeing this species in the wild on our last school expedition to the Brazilian costal forest (Mata Atlantica) in 2006. It grows in dryish forest at around 800m altitude and so we grow it with a minimum temperature of 15 degrees Celcius. As you can see from the plant photograph we grow it mounted rather than in a pot. About nine years ago we tied a seedling to a piece of cork and as you can see the plant has grown to completely cover the mount. This year it is flowering really well. This species is pollinated by humming birds. ]]> http://wsbeorchids.org.uk/2009/brazilian-colour-to-beat-the-winter-gloom/feed/ 0 http://wsbeorchids.org.uk/2009/dreaming-of-a-white-christmas/ http://wsbeorchids.org.uk/2009/dreaming-of-a-white-christmas/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:05:09 +0000 Simon Pugh-Jones http://wsbeorchids.org.uk/?p=949 No not the snow, Dendrobium wattii. Some orchids have the most amazingly crisp white flowers and this Christmas the best white is this stunning Dendrobium native to the Eastern Himalayas of Burma, Thailand and Laos. It is another cool grower and we keep it at a minimum of 10ºC. The orange stripes on the lip are guides to the pollinating bees although this may well be a deceipt poliator as are many long lasting orchids. The flower provides no pollinator reward such as nectar and relies on mimicry or naive pollinators. Research has shown that the closely related species Dendrobium infundibulum mimics a white Rhododendron species. Well, trick flower or not, Dendrobium wattii has won me over.

Dedrobium wattii