From: Joe and Ellen Hecksel <jhecksel@voyager.net>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Micropropagation (was cats)
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 06:34:38 -0500
Keith Benson wrote:
Uh-oh - back to fruit! Anyone on the list engaged in at-home
micropropagation??
I messed around with orchid seeds for a little bit. My plan was to use
that as a springboard for micropropagation. Orchid supply houses have
many pre-mixes for the media. There are also many homemade recipes.
They usually have a thickener. Agar is the most common but I have seen
recipes with corn starch. They also have a nutrient source, usually
mashed bananas but sometimes bizarre things like ketchup. Basically,
you make up the media, pour about an inch (25 mm) into each container
and then "can" it like you would cold pack apple sauce.
I never really came up with a good container. I was about to try large
baby food jars when I stopped. I was going to have a second set of lids
with a piece of felt glued over a hole in the top so the plantlets could
breath.
The basic home technique is to take a medium size cardboard box. Cut a
good size hole in one side. Make a couple of practice runs so you can
whittle the hole to the proper size and shape. Find an area with no
drafts. Spray the jeepers out of everything with very mild bleach-water
solution. Open jars. Add seeds or little lumps of tissue. Stuff
cotton into tops of flasks or screw on lids (as described above) or
rubber-band polyethylene film over top.
None of my orchid seed germinated, which is very common for orchid seed
that becomes fully dried out. I was not particularly careful and well
over 2/3 of my attempts did not get contaminated for the 4 months I hung
onto them.