FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi all,

I finally have some success. My Royal Red seedlings in Tissue Culture!
I have tried leaf- and flowerstalk tissue this year, without success. They all fell for contamination. So I let 3 flowerstalks on my Royal Red flower, cross-pollinated with other Royals. This is the result for this summer: I had some discussion about genetics with some CP growers. They say that the phenotypic characteristics of cultivars are not genetically transferred by seeds. But I wonder, you can see the red characteristics of the Royals in the seedlings. What do you think?

I had some trouble getting the media to the right rigidness. I began with 7 grams microagar per Liter, ended with 2.5 g/L. But I think this batch of media is to jelly. Does anyone know the dangers of using to semisolid media? Does this influence the uptake of nutrients? Does it harm the plants or what?

This is my first replate in 6-8 weeks. I have more of such seedlings in culture now.

Youri

Looking good Youri!

swerfer wrote:Does anyone know the dangers of using to semisolid media? Does this influence the uptake of nutrients? Does it harm the plants or what?

I'm not entirely certain, but I haven't noticed many negative effects from media that's too soft. But I have noticed that plants don't grow as well on media that's too hard.

swerfer wrote:I had some discussion about genetics with some CP growers. They say that the phenotypic characteristics of cultivars are not genetically transferred by seeds. But I wonder, you can see the red characteristics of the Royals in the seedlings. What do you think?

It's true that you can't get a plant that's genetically identical to the parent from a seed, but you can certainly get characteristics exhibited by the parent plant including interesting cilia (sawtooth, dente, fused, etc.) and coloration (red in this case).

I've noticed that the two traits denatate teeth and red coloration are readily passed onto seedlings. This summer I self pollinated a Royal Red and got 10 or so seed. All seeds except one produced red seedlings.