The use of a new culture medium and organic supplement to improve in vitro early stage development of five orchid species

Due to the high demand, orchid propagation by in vitro techniques has lately increased, with an emphasis on the ways to improve germination and seedling development. In this work we compare the efficiency of three classic media for orchid propagation with a newly formulated medium supplemented with almond milk. Our target species responded differently to both the media and the supplement. However, with the exception of Bulbophyllum plumatum that did not show statistical differences with the most common media, a beneficial effect on orchid development growing on the new supplemented medium was observed for Cymbidium tracyanum, Dendrobium wardianum and for the two European orchid species Dactylorhiza praetermissa and Himantoglossum robertianum, speeding up the development of the latter two species into photosynthetic stages. The new medium could be, therefore, suitable for improving the development of some ornamental orchids and terrestrial orchid seedlings included in conservation projects that need an ex situ approach.