The problem with seedlings is that you cannot be 100 % certain that they are that what is written on the lable until they flower. We have known the case of the "sanderianum" seedlings that came from The Orchid Zone, and proved to be "Prince Edward of York". We know of the thousands of P. Pinochio sold as P. primulinum. We know that zillions of primary hybrids have been sold as species, etc. Thus, why don't we all just wait and see.
Hear my words: once the so-called "legal" seedlings will be out, they will have a miraculous proliferation in numbers ... and they will be crawling out of just about any horticultural whole. (Don't forget, there were, and are people that claim to be able to change water into wine). In two to five years, the kovachii story, will have settled down to what it is: a farce. Trying to compute the number of seedpods that may have possibly been made is futile. And just a few words on laboratories. Laboartories must not necessarily be at the grower in question. I am sure most of you know what "outsourcing" is. My friend up north also was accused of not having a laboratory and thus, the stupid CITES people, + Cribb + De Vogel accused him of not propagating plants, and they claimed that his could not be a producing business. If they would have asked, they would have had evidence from at least tree labs where the seedlings were produced for him. Those who want a grown plant of kovachii now, are able to get it. In our molecular biology study published in France, we used material of two different adult plants of P. kovachii (Chiron, Chiron & Braem; Richardiana, VI(4): 206-216). Only the first wave of seedlings will fetch good prices. When they come, Viateur will surely find a way of informing us. Prof. Guido Braem _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
