# Does anyone do home tissue culturing / micro-propagation



## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

I'm just getting into it as a hobby.

My first cultures failed miserably  but I made several critical mistakes. I've since upgraded equipment and improved my sterilization techniques.

I'm not expecting much out of my latest attempt but I learned a lot and had fun 

So I'm just curious if anyone also else does this as a hobby or if you have any advice or super secret tips 

Here's a pic of my latest attempt. I'm not even sure if I did anything right but I'm learning


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## Betta132 (May 12, 2012)

Try here. Tissue Culture
Those guys work with carnivorous plants, but there shouldn't be much of a difference in this aspect of cultivation.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

I took a class in college and also worked in the lab for a year doing tissue culture. The best tissue for this propagation is meristems. Usually found in the tip of the stem and also in the leaf axil, where the leaf and stem connect. Begonias are one of the few plants that have meristematic cells in the leaves. Make sure your stems are young and actively growing, not hard and woody. I failed multiple attempts getting my first tissue to multiply. Once it finally took, I had hundreds in just a few months.


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## cam1941 (Jan 16, 2014)

What plants are you culturing?


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## Sammie (Oct 12, 2009)

Cool, I've never seen it done at home before. I always thought of it as a lab thing. I know very little about the actual process, is it hard?
Mass producing plants like that would be a great way to spread rare and slow growing plants to the hobby.


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

chillplants said:


> I took a class in college and also worked in the lab for a year doing tissue culture. The best tissue for this propagation is meristems. Usually found in the tip of the stem and also in the leaf axil, where the leaf and stem connect. Begonias are one of the few plants that have meristematic cells in the leaves. Make sure your stems are young and actively growing, not hard and woody. I failed multiple attempts getting my first tissue to multiply. Once it finally took, I had hundreds in just a few months.


I'm considering these first attempts as practice  I don't expect them to succeed. As long as they don't mold over again I'll at least know sterilization was successful. I'm still a bit confused on which tissue to use and have a lot to learn. Thanks for the tips!



cam1941 said:


> What plants are you culturing?


Various Marcgravia and if I'm successful I'll pick up some rarer marcs. I'll gladly accept tissue samples 



Sammie said:


> Cool, I've never seen it done at home before. I always thought of it as a lab thing. I know very little about the actual process, is it hard?
> Mass producing plants like that would be a great way to spread rare and slow growing plants to the hobby.


It's definitely not easy. Sterilization at home involves a lot of luck unless you have money and space for an autoclave, stir plate and laminar flow hood. I used a pressure cooker and a pop up light box  I think I did a lot better this time but, only time will tell.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Interesting. You should try hitting up pdfcrazy. He's local to Denver, keeps at least a few Marcs and other rare plants, and may be interested in that sort of thing.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

I played around with Pogostemon helferi in the lab. This first pic is after sterilization from one of the jars that successfully multiplied.


This is about a month later from just one of those tiny little stems. 


Don't give up. It's very rewarding and you feel a great sense of accomplishment when you finally get it going.


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

chillplants said:


> I played around with Pogostemon helferi in the lab. This first pic is after sterilization from one of the jars that successfully multiplied.
> 
> Don't give up. It's very rewarding and you feel a great sense of accomplishment when you finally get it going.


That's so cool! Thanks for sharing! I'm not gonna give up. I do have a tendency to just jump head first into these hobbies and learn the hard way. It's a lot of fun and I'm super excited to be doing it.


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## cam1941 (Jan 16, 2014)

Perfect choice, hard to think of a cooler plant.

I love using the aquarium plant cultures that they sell never thought about creating my own.



port_plz said:


> Various Marcgravia and if I'm successful I'll pick up some rarer marcs. I'll gladly accept tissue samples


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Define "tissue sample". Are we talking about you being able to work with a single leaf, or part of a stem?

I've just received Umbellata, Rectiflora, Stintenisii, and round leaf. They are still small, except for the rectiflora. That would be the one to start with, and if you get some success, we can chop into the others.


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

Pumilo said:


> Define "tissue sample". Are we talking about you being able to work with a single leaf, or part of a stem?
> 
> I've just received Umbellata, Rectiflora, Stintenisii, and round leaf. They are still small, except for the rectiflora. That would be the one to start with, and if you get some success, we can chop into the others.


I have all of those except for round leaf  I really want round leaf.

If my initial protocol is successful (highly doubtful) I will need a 10 - 12 leafed tip to start out.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

port_plz said:


> I have all of those except for round leaf  I really want round leaf.
> 
> If my initial protocol is successful (highly doubtful) I will need a 10 - 12 leafed tip to start out.


That will take a little while.

Do you have any other marcs than the 4 I have?


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

Pumilo said:


> That will take a little while.
> 
> Do you have any other marcs than the 4 I have?


I have Suriname, Umbellata, Rectiflora, Stintenisii - I don't have round leaf.


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## Veneer (Nov 13, 2012)

I'm aware this is an old thread but it's the most recent I saw in my search results. I'm interested in attempting this myself and am wondering whether anyone on Dendroboard has had success with this.


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