Tissue Culture Propagation

20 years ago

Hi all,

Has anybody here had any success with Tissue Culture Propogation at home? (rather than in the Lab).

I find the subject fascinating and am about to attempt my own home tissue culture experiment.

Martin

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Comments (4)

Jamus_S
20 years ago
Martin, I have done LOTS of tissue culture at work (in a lab) and it's quite tricky! I wish you all the best with your experiments. My advice is to get yourself a large pressure cooker and cook all your media/equipment in that. You need at least 20 minutes to ensure all microbes are destroyed. Wrap everything in aluminium foil before sterilising. The next hurdle is sorting out some kind of laminar flow cabinet. Might cost you a bit but IÂm sure it can be done. If you need any advice regarding media, equipment, techniques etc IÂm more than happy to help. Cheers, Jamus.
judith_sydney
Original Author
20 years ago
Hey Jamus,
Thanks for your reply.
I have read a bit about it and find the subject really interesting.
There is a fair bit of info around on doing it at home, using pressure cookers etc to sterilise, and saying just put away from direct sun at room temperature.
I have just set some up the other day, whether they are sterile enough, I would say possibly not, however they have been in the jars 2 days with no sign of shrivelling up or any mould or anything, so all I can do is cross my fingers.
I don't expect 100% success rate in a crewd home setup, but if I get a couple of tips shooting that survive, I'll be utterly stoked!
Will pop you a line if I need any help! Thanks for the offer.
Martin
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Often people observe how well TC plants grow! Absent other cultural problems TC plants do very well in the first couple of years because they come out of the tubes very clean. You can expect them to do well in future years as well. IÂm talking about fewer pathogens within the plant, they will acquire the same problems other plants have in the garden but they start out clean. Out of a 1000 plants out of TC v garden divisions the TC will be much cleaner at the outset. This is not a blanket recommendation to only buy TC because there are other reasons to buy divisions, for example a young TC plant may have all the coloration characteristics but only grow half the size of the plant you want.
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Alina, I think I must have purchased those double hellebores in late March or early April. They were blooming at the time but Merrifield had a lot more plants out than they do now. I stopped by there today and scoped things out. They had 2 plastic covered structures with hellebores in them. The first one I went in had a rolling cart with some 1 gallon pots of hellebores. They were blooming, were mostly dark maroon singles but I did see one that was dark pink. Those were $14.99. In the second structure they had a lot more. They had Christmas Rose-Helleborus niger in bloom in small pots for $9.99 and lots of Helleborus xhybridus many in bloom but quite expensive. Some were $26.99 and higher. That was at the Merrifield location. If you wait for the Green Spring sale the hellebores probably won't be blooming anymore. Hellebores self seed when they're happy and sometimes people bring the seedlings to our swaps. That's another possible source for you.
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Well Ken I am no stranger to horticulture. Been gardening for 24 years now (I'm 29). I wrote on my blog about what you are describing, where 2 becomes 4, becomes 8, etc. I called it the Leap Frog Effect. Indeed yes, I would like to delve into the realm of tissue culture. Many tissue culture companies will also contract to tissue culture plants for you. I can root cuttings and build stock no problem. The fact that the Deppea splendens is extinct in the wild and since I've not seen it offered much was where my two schools of thought came together, I suppose. I also didn't imagine that every plant out there could be tissue cultured. I'm sure there are ways to go about it without spending indecent sums of money. The Deppea is becoming more common now - a year ago they were selling for over $100 a piece on eBay when Annies Annuals was out of stock. Perhaps a year ago shelling out $500 would have meant getting your money back, perhaps not. I suppose the rarity of a plant does not necessarily always mean that it's "difficult" :)
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Jamus_S
20 years ago
Martin, if you don't mind I'd love to hear how it goes for you. Keep us posted if you have time, who knows, i might be able to help. What plant/plants are you trying?
judith_sydney
Original Author
20 years ago
Hi Jamus,
Shall keep you informed. This was mainly an experiment to see how it works (and IF it works) - I have Banksia, Grevillea, Dendrobium orchid and Kangaroo paw, all from leaf tips. Would you agree that in that same order my expectations should be from least to most likely to shoot? I've heard that the woodier the plants the more difficult it is to get them to grow from TC. And that there has been some good results with Kangaroo Paw in the past...since its fairly soft.
It was suggested that I use 10:10:10 NPK soluble fertiliser in my medium, but I have chosen something with a lower P level for the natives. Was that a good idea or not?
I'm very much a beginner with propagation unfortunately, so I may be completely mad with my assumptions. Maybe its a bit early in my experiences to play around with TC and that I should learn a bit more about the technical side of horticulture before I attempt something such as this!! But I'm having fun, and thats why I do it :)
Thanks
Martin

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Tissue Culture Propagation

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Jamus_S

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Tissue Culture Propagation

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