Bob, The only nuance you are missing is the fact that the gel medium contains *Plant Cell Technologies*' nearly magical concoction "*PPM*" as well as sugar. PPM (plant propagation medium?) is a mixture of two chemicals that are persistent over time and temperature and prevent *anything *except plants from growing. It kills fungi, bacteria, chromista, animalia, etc., which means no mold or mildew will develop. But you are otherwise correct. No direct connection to an energy source, so it will start slowly and need exposure to light, but it doesn't need a sterile environment but can be directly planted in a seed tray. I assume the PPM will eventually leach out with watering. I bought some PPM once to protect chestnut seeds from mold while overwintering and I can tell you two things from that experiment - it is expensive to make five gallons of solution and those were the only bags that had zero mold after five months in the cooler. I also tried hydrogen peroxide, bleach, povidone iodine (betadine), benzalkonium chloride, Star San, etc. It may be worth some members buying some to try on seed or cuttings that are prone to mold or mildew. Good Luck, Tim On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 12:43 AM Robert Lauf via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > If I understand this correctly, the synthetic seeds might be larger and a > bit easier to handle, but "treating them like seeds" is in many ways > problematic. Treating them like orchid seeds might be a better analogy, > for two reasons:1. Normal seeds have a seed coat to prevent dehydration of > the embryo.2. Normal seeds contain endosperm, which the embryo lives on > until it makes leaves and starts photosynthesizing. > So it would seem that the synthetic seed is roughly analogous to a > germinating orchid seed at the protocorm stage, and you couldn't take that > and plant it in dirt. It still needs to be in sterile medium containing > sugar. If these bodies are somehow encapsulated and removed from the > culture medium just for shipping, I would think they would be difficult to > sterilize, and if not sterilized, they would immediately contaminate the > new medium and you'd have a jar full of mold. Maybe I'm missing something > here. If you already have successful propagules of the desired plant in a > flask, why not leave them in the flask until they are little plants with > leaves and capable of living in the open? > Embryo rescue, which I have done, starts with a seed from two parents that > are dissimilar enough that the pod parent doesn't recognize it as her > offspring and doesn't make any endosperm. But the embryo is in fact alive > and viable, but just like an orchid seed (except usually bigger). Imagine > a Hipp seed but with practically no "yolk" in it. So you surface sterilize > in diluted bleach or hydrogen peroxide, and sow on orchid medium to supply > the sugar, and voila. This is probably why it's so easy to make > intergeneric orchid hybrids, because orchid seeds have all been germinated > by this method anyway. > Full disclosure: I'm not a botanist, nor do I play one on TV (apologies > to Marcus Welby...) If you don't get that joke, you are probably less than > 70 years old. > Bob Zone 7 warm with rain on the way; daffs and hyacinths starting to > sprout > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > PBS Forum latest: > https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…