FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I am just learning about TC and although I read through the FAQ tutorials I am a little confused over the speed of growth using TC instead of just sticking a leaf pulling or seed in some medium and waiting.

I understand that TC can create many plants very quickly vs. a leaf pulling will create just 1 plant until it is large enough to divide on its own which could take years, but, how long does it take (I realize every plant is different) to take a TC and turn it into a juvenile plant?
Also, how fast will a seed turn into a juvenile plant, or whatever size you remove it from sterile culture and return it to traditional medium and how long would that have taken to grow a similar size plant in just traditional medium?

I don't know if this makes any sense, just trying to wrap my head around the time to grow in TC vs leaf propigation etc. Thanks for the insight!

If you want a few clones, tissue culture will likely take more effort/time than just regular leaf/root propagation. Some plants, like lots of sundews, propagate very easily and quickly with pullings/cuttings. Others, however, don't propagate that way well, or at all, and tissue culture helps multiply those without needing seed.

The thing about tissue culture, is that it tends to have a pretty slow startup time for each species you want to initiate (especially via callus induced on explants), but then once you get to the point where your in-vitro specimens are dividing and growing quickly, it picks up speed exponentially, and you can end up with thousands of clones if you want.

In regards to starting a seed in-vitro vs in-vivo, if given the right media and conditions, it should grow much faster in-vitro. For example, Dionaea muscipula can take 3-5 years to mature enough to flower, if planted in-vivo. In-vitro, you can have a flowering plant within a year.

Awesome, that is exactly what I was looking for.