"Orchid... as a hobby, industry ... An entire greenhouse at the Texas A&M University Agricultural Research and Extension Center... is dedicated to it.
... Yin-Tung Wang... is the only faculty in the United States with a dedicated orchid research program... The world-renowned expert said that the United States Department of Agriculture didnt deem orchids as a viable crop until 1996, when the industry was worth $47 million. By 2004, the 17.2 million pots grown in the US were valued at $128 million. Wang arrived at the center in 1984 and refocused his research in 1990. Commercial growers in the United States were then raising orchids from scratch and selling cut blossoms for corsages or bouquets. The high costs and the tedious process of growing orchids from the almost microscopic seeds... helped shift the focus to finishing plants started abroad. ... The U.S. industry now centers on potted orchids most of them imported from Taiwan, the worlds leading supplier. Older plants are closer to blooming and therefore more costly, Wang said... Wangs research is aimed at and partly funded by commercial growers, such as Matsui Nursery in California, which accounts for 25 to 35 percent of U.S. potted orchids. The Tip of Texas Orchid Society... also donates to the center. A fellow researcher named a moth orchid hybrid after Wang... he is daily surrounded by orchids he does not grow them at home... Ronald Hausermann, whose family went into the orchid business in 1940 in Chicago, also had a hybrid named in his honor by his brother, George. The Grande Island, Fla., resident ... Hausermann, 67... a former Los Fresnos resident, once managed the now-defunct Butterfly Orchids nursery in Arroyo City. Presently the only commercial orchid grower in the area is River Valley Orchids in Harlingen. According to the center, the two nurseries produced a combined 150,000 potted moth orchids in 2004... Wang said that in lieu of photosynthesis, pores on the underside of the tough orchid leaves open at night to take in carbon dioxide. The pores close at daylight because too much heat can dehydrate the plants. In studying the nutritional needs of orchids, Wang and his students have learned that very little fertilizer applied in a timely manner yields more flowers and more growth... We use less fertilizer this way and we protect the environment, he said. Catasetum genus... , Wang said the pollen caps are ejected at about 15 miles per hour." source : http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=12849&Section=Valley%20Life ********** regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
