FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

About a month ago, on Dec. 20, I put my first flytrap seeds into tissue culture. I put 17 seeds into 3 different jars. (Two jars with 6 seeds each, one jar with 5.) I saw the first signs of growth last week, at about 3 weeks in.

Now, out of those 17 seeds, 4 look about like this:



(It's hard to get a very good photo; there's a lot of humidity inside those jars.)

So, I'm wondering what some other people with more experience think of my first experiment with this, as to whether things are looking good, bad, normal, right on schedule, whatever, before I go ahead and do some more. (I want to learn from any mistakes.)

There are no signs of contamination yet. Three of the seeds that I can see growth on are in the same jar, one in another jar, and one jar has no visible growth.

I'm wondering whether I might have screwed something up with that one jar that has no growth yet? Or is it too early to tell, and I just need to relax, man?

Congratulation!!! Welcome to TC world. Your seeds look real good. No contamination; seeds are growing. You pass the first step of TC: sterilize medium and seeds. It’s the most important step in TC for beginner. Relax and enjoy man. Next step, buy and sow Hamata Nepenthes, "Burgundy black" Heliamphora, and "Hummer's Giant" Cephalotus seeds. LOL.

Thanks! I'm thinking I might go for round #2 with even more VFT seeds this week, and wanted to make sure no one was like, "Usually it's not until week #5 that your TC medium turns into meth and your make-shift lab blows up."

Here's how things are looking after 7 weeks:



Out of my first batch of 17 seeds, 7 are now showing good growth, like the ones above.

The one on the left has some nice red!

I put 24 more seeds into TC yesterday.

Looking good Eric!

Here's an update on how things are looking now after about 11 weeks.

I've got some crazy dark red traps here!
And one here is looking yellow and white?
Let's update the germination scoreboard:

Seeds put into TC on 12/20/15 (11 weeks ago):
10 out of 17 seeds are growing. That's 59%
(3 more seeds growing than a month ago.)

Seeds put into TC on on 2/8/15 (4 weeks ago):
9 out of 24 seeds are growing. That's 37.5%

Congrats on the germination rates and odd looking seedlings!

What media are they on and how much and what intensity of light are they getting? The reason I ask is because the seedlings don't look quite right. They look like they're either getting too much light or on a medium that it too "hot"...

Matt wrote:Congrats on the germination rates and odd looking seedlings!

What media are they on and how much and what intensity of light are they getting? The reason I ask is because the seedlings don't look quite right. They look like they're either getting too much light or on a medium that it too "hot"...

Thanks!

The media is 1/3 MS with 1mL BAP, 1mL PPM, 2 tbsp sugar per liter. 50mL of media in each jar, with one pinch of agar.

Light is 4 5000K 100W equivalent CFLs, 15 hour photoperiod, with bulbs about 2 inches off the tops of the jars. It's about 80 F under the lights.

Let me know if that light sounds like too much, and if you've got any suggestions. I can shorten the photoperiod, or maybe better to move the lights further away, or go down to 3 or 2 lights?

Eric Millikin wrote:The media is 1/3 MS with 1mL BAP, 1mL PPM, 2 tbsp sugar per liter. 50mL of media in each jar, with one pinch of agar.

Light is 4 5000K 100W equivalent CFLs, 15 hour photoperiod, with bulbs about 2 inches off the tops of the jars. It's about 80 F under the lights.

Ah! That explains it!

Hormones for seedlings is a big "no no" until they get to a larger size. It seems to mess them up in various ways and sometimes, when they're finally planted out, they don't grow very well. Best to start them on plain 1/3 MS with no hormones.

And the lighting is a bit intense for TC. I keep my lights on for 16 hours, but actually cover the light with a diffusing agent (partially opaque plastic) and use 40-watt T12 bulbs.

15 hours is a fine amount of time, and the temperature sounds good too, but I'd move the light further away and maybe diffuse it a bit. TC plants don't need very much light compared to plants in soil.

Matt wrote: I'd move the light further away and maybe diffuse it a bit.

Thanks for the tips! I just backed the lights off to about 6.5 inches above the jars. I'll see about diffusing some of the light. And I'll use my MS with no BAP for future seeds.

I'm curious: What tipped you off that something looked wrong?

Something like: Colors of the traps look like they got too much light? Shapes of the traps look like the media is too strong?

I can't thank you enough for your help!

Eric Millikin wrote:I'm curious: What tipped you off that something looked wrong?

Based on the way they're growing (thick and kind of distorted), they looked like they were struggling from either too "hot" of media, hormones and/or too much light. I've seen it before first hand, so I know what it looks like

Eric Millikin wrote:Colors of the traps look like they got too much light? Shapes of the traps look like the media is too strong?

Yes, both of those too.

Here's an update on how things look in one of the best flasks from TC round one, started about 14 weeks ago. I was surprised to see that little seed in the lower right is starting to grow after about 3 months. Don't give up, little seed!

(These seeds are also pictured above, 3 weeks earlier, for comparison.)
And here's one from TC round two, started about 7 weeks ago.
Let's update the germination scoreboard:

Seeds put into TC on 12/20/15 (about 14 weeks ago):
11 out of 17 seeds are growing. That's 65%
(1 more seed growing than 3 weeks ago.)

Seeds put into TC on 2/8/15 (about 7 weeks ago):
15 out of 24 seeds are growing. That's 63%
(6 more seeds growing than 3 weeks ago.)

I was planning on replating this first batch today. I was thinking I wanted to get them into hormone-free media, and thinking they're probably slowing in growth since it's been about four months (17 weeks). But I was a little surprised by how much growth they have kicked out lately, so I may just leave them in until they start to slow.

Here is one of my first flasks, after growing from seed for 17 weeks.
And here is a series of photos showing growth.

I put 41 more seeds in TC three weeks ago, on May 2. Just one of those new jars is looking like it has a little bit of cloudiness. Does this look like the start of bacteria or mold contamination?

(I'm thinking about pulling the seeds out, sterilizing them again, and putting them in fresh media.)

Yep, bacteria if it's cloudy.