Nothing is gained by removing the
little seedlings from the seed pot or basket too early. If thriving,
they should be left until they are large enough to be handled safely.
But where there is overcrowding, or "damping off," or decay from fungus,
it is best to remove some or all of the little seedlings in any stage of
growth to the store-pots.

The store-pots should be returned to the seedling case, or placed on a
shelf near the glass in a warm, moist house, where the seedlings should
increase in size until they are ready to remove to fresh store-pots,
when they may be given more room; or if large enough, they may be placed
singly in thimble pots, or three or four seedlings may be placed round
the rims of thumb pots.

Seedling Odontoglossums, when large enough to occupy thimble pots, are
found to thrive well when the pots are fixed in pans or shallow
seed-boxes in Sphagnum-moss, and placed on a shelf near the glass in the
Odontoglossum house, where, like other seedling Orchids, they should be
lightly sprayed several times each day in fine, warm weather, and as
often as may be deemed necessary in colder and dull weather.

From the time the little plants are established in small pots until
their flowering stage, it is only a matter of ordinary culture,
although, as a rule, the small seedlings are safer with four or five
degrees more heat than is afforded the established plants. In the matter
of growth from the seedling stage to the flowering plant, there is but
little need of a resting season, even with species such as are deciduous
when mature, although a diminished supply of water may be given for a
short time to any which, having completed a growth, show no sign of
developing a fresh one. In most cases, a thorough drying, even if it
does not destroy a seedling, causes the flowering season to be delayed
by a year, or even longer.

The careful shading of the seedling house is a very important matter.
Very young plants do best in a subdued light, and until they are quite
strong plants they should not be exposed to direct sunlight. A hot
summer often kills even the plants which have been brought
satisfactorily through a long winter. It is, therefore, advisable to
have on the seedling house, in addition to the lath roller blind,
running on supports carrying it well above the glass of the roof, either
a second lath roller blind running an inch or so above the glass and
beneath the upper one, or a permanent thin cotton sha