About 1966 or so I discovered, in academic literature, that coconut milk (Some will crack you knuckles and tell you it is coconut water you are talking about.) had all the wonderful things one needs to propagate anything.

I have attempted, off and on, for 43 years to use it and I always have fungus problems. I was trained in the use of sterile techniques in the horticultural lab and in the clinical lab and I still have fungus problems.

rain2fall, if this recipe you came across has antifungal information please share.

I'll share the recipe, trusting that you will remain on this thread to answer my questions too! I'd like to try this. My questions are on what parts of the plants to use, when to obtain the plant material, and which plants can be propagated this way.

Coconut Milk Medium

1/8 c. sugar
1 t. all-purpose soluble fertilizer with all major & minor nutrients, esp. including ammonium nitrate
1 tablet (100 mg) of inositol (myoinositol); available at health food stores
1/4 tablet of a vitamin tablet containing 1-2 mg. thiamine
4 T. coconut milk from a fresh coconut
3-4 grains of a commercial rooting compound with 0.1% active ingredient IBA

Mix everything in a 1-quart canning jar. Add purified, distilled or deonized water to fill. Shake several minutes until everything is dissolved.

Add medium to baby jars 1/2 filled with paper or cotton. Do not completely cover the paper or cotton. Screw on the lids loosely.

Sterilize the filled jars. Pressue cooker method  at 10 lbs for 30 minutes. Oven method  at 320 F for 4 hours

You will need to start by understanding Meristematic tissues. (Links to one of many sites.)

You may also want to do searches for "tissue culture" and "in vitro" propagation.

When undergraduate students were doing this for the first time many decades ago we used carrots to learn the techniques.

Albert, did the recipe give you any new ideas? No fungicide, but maybe the sterilization of the medium might help?

I read the meristem bit; although bamboo is a grass, I don't think it would have a Intercalary meristem, since it won't regrow if cut. Is that right?

I'm likening meristem to stem cells. Tips of new shoots and roots, as well as intercalary meristem in some species, are the tissues that can be cloned to form new plants. Is that correct?

Rain2Fall

rain2fall, I waited a couple of days to see if anyone else was interested in contributing.

I have no experiences with grasses. I think you are correct that bamboo may be difficult or imposable to propagate this way.

The oven or pressure cooker methods were standards for sterilizing the medium; were widely used in clinical laboratories.

How do your procedures say to sterilize the bit of plant that you are going to put in the sterile medium?

Albert, my directions don't say anything about sterilizing the plant parts. If it were me, I'd spray them with a bit of diluted fungicide. I do that with cuttings in baggies.

What I'd like to do is take cuttings off plants as I go about walks in the neighborhood and start them this way. But it looks like I'd need to take an actively growing tip. So what advantage is there to cloning an actively growing tip over starting from greenwood or doing winter hardwood cuttings?

Rain2Fall

I'm a first year student in plant science, so I haven't been in the lab much yet. A while ago when I was reading up on tissue culture (after seeing a course being offered in second year), and remember reading that the plant material is dipped in lab grade alcohol before being placed on the medium. Now I do know that some people put alcohol into the water of paperwhite bulbs they force so the plant doesn't get as tall. I'm not sure of the science behind that, nor if dipping the plant material in alcohol will do any ill damage.

This should help shed more light:

Cytokinins

"The effect of cytokinins was first reported when it was found that adding the liquid endosperm of coconuts to developing plant embryos in culture stimulated their growth. The stimulating growth factor was found to be cytokinin, a hormone that promotes cytokinesis (cell division). Almost 200 naturally-occurring or synthetic cytokinins are known, to date. Cytokinins are most abundant in growing tissues, such as roots, embryos, and fruits, where cell division is occurring. Cytokinins are known to delay senescence in leaf tissues, promote mitosis, and stimulate differentiation of the meristem in shoots and roots. Many effects on plant development are under the influence of cytokinins, either in conjunction with auxin or another hormone. For example, apical dominance seems to result from a balance between auxins that inhibit lateral buds and cytokinins that promote bushier growth"

from - https://www.boundless.com/biology/plant-form-and-physiology/plant-sensory-systems-and-responses/auxins-cytokinins-and-gibberellins/

My conclusion is that coconut milk should be used in conjunction with a rooting hormone, not just left in diluted coconut milk concoction itself.

Willow tree tea mixed with coconut milk recipe, might work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Hormones

Skoog & Miller, rresearch to find cytokinins . See also Richmond Lang effect. Better using a commercial product or seeaweed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMWB9b58Rt4