FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Okay,

It's been a Week now since My third attempt at VFT leaf cuttings, and so far here are the results:

Of the 8 jars, all but three look real good; have drained excess water out of all the cultures at least twice by now. By now, most all of the tissues have the slightest fringe of blackened, brownish, or otherwise oxidised, discolored tissue on the outermost fringes as well as where they were cut with the scalpel. The discolored fringes are less than .5mm inward, so I'm disreguarding that as just part of what happens normally upon sterilization; it kills outward at the thinnest areas and goes inward. I'm not seeing even the slightest amount of the blackish ink, or discoloration of media associated with phenolic bleeding, so I guess that's good.

On the other three, (which so far are still very much alive) 2 of them had the blackened areas, again where cut, migrating, so unplated them, recut the dead tissue off along with a bit of healthy tissue, and re-plated. That still leaves Me with half inch or slightly less on the three leaves.

On the last of the three, (the dirtiest cutting) there was some trancluscency, grayish, and early signs of a fungus initiating (from what I could tell) originating from the thickened rhyzome side of the leaf; so again, unplated, cut and re-plated.
I probably should (and still might) soak that last cutting in 2-4% PPM for 30 minutes or so, I'm guessing. This is the cutting that I left quite a bit on the cutting that was originally under the soil line. It was also originally almost an inch long; should have cut more off both sides, but the only side affected is the soil side where it gets white.

I might note that when I re-plated, I was sure to place it in a different area of the media, but not touching the sides.

The common Denominator on all of the 3 problem jars were that the problem originated at the rhyzome portion of the leaf.

Am I doing things alright so far? I'm just learning as I go, here; grasping bits of info here and there; and having fun!

Anyone can chime in, if They want to. (I'll try to add pics. soon).

Gary

goldslinger wrote:Am I doing things alright so far?

I don't really have enough knowledge or experience to critique anyone's technique, but I prefer not to open any cultures unless they become contaminated. Then, if the tissue is worth saving or I just want to practice saving contaminated tissue, I cut off the part that's contaminated and do a resterilization.

I've never opened a culture to trim off dead or dying tissue. You can always expect a bit of dying tissue around the edges and it doesn't seem to affect the callus formation on Dionaea tissue.

Hope that helps and I'm glad that you're having fun and sharing your experiences here Gary!

Hello, Matt.

Yea, the only ones I trimmed are the ones that the black was migrating throughout the tissue; it is Day 10 and I think those 3 jars are doomed, so it didn't do any good.

DAY 10:

All 8 VFT leaves still looking good, except 3, in which 1 is 90% black; so removed from rack. The other two I expect to throw out as well in a Day or two as I'm getting the black migrating on them as well.

As far as the other 5 tissues, the Green Dragons which were mostly burgandy red when I plated them, are turning more of a cherry red; (oxidation?) the black on the fringes have not migrated. 3 of the cultured leaves are getting tiny 'goose' pimply all over the front. I don't know if it is a result from dehydration making things more apparant, or if it's pre-callous arrangement of cells. I do hope it's the latter.

Trying not to get My hopes up, but I'm a little more optimistic having gone this long; if You can call it long.

Surprisingly, My longest 1 inch leaf is One of the better hopes. Looking really good.