Further evidence of my incompetence has emerged. I sowed the seed onto pre inoculated plates, which, I was told on Friday, is not the correct way of doing it, since the it is the growth of the fungal hyphae which helps the germination of the orchid seed.
I checked the seed I sowed on the 29th of September last night, and none of the Dactylorhiza fuchsii had germinated, but in both the D. praetermissa plates there were several small protocorms:
Not brilliant images but hopefully they are visible, along with the tiny rootlets. It will be interesting to see if the subsequent batch of D. praetermissa also germinates. I'm not holding my breath, and while this was an interesting observation, I think in the future i will try to do it correctly!
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