FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi there,

I followed some of the present posts lately about seed germination e.g. Of all my attempts at tissue culture explants, only one partly succeeded, was it not for the latent contamination which swallowed my whole explant.

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/viewt ... =28&t=2614

I have already tried to sterilize the tissue again but with no success. You probably can’t run away from ‘spores’ (Gram positive rods). So it is going to be a goner. This was my last attempt in explants this year, because in November al my plants are preparing for their dormant period. I will try again in spring, with flower stalks.

I have however succeeded in germinating seeds of my Royal reds (pollinated by its own kind). So hopefully the seeds will show some characteristics of the reds to. My germinated seeds are a couple of weeks/ months old and are growing very slowly. As I have read in other posts, temperature is an issue. I was holding my cultures in a room with no heating (except the lighting lamps). The temperature was about 18 degrees Celsius. I now have constructed an au bain marie bath, which is set on 25-27 degrees Celsius to promote germination. The ones already germinated are a few inches away from the light source, so heating of the lamps keep them in a higher warmth environment. My question is as follows, when are the seedlings strong enough to replate them in hormone containing culture medium? I have kinetine, BAP, IBA and another root hormone. I germinated on ½ and 1/3 of MS +full vitamins.

Youri

I am brand spankin' new to all of this and not even going to pretend I know more than You, but so far, PPM in the media has helped alot with seeds AND cuttings. It makes things a whole lot more forgiving; for sure.

'0' contamination in the seeds, even the fuzzy Darlingtonia. On the cuttings, they are 9 days old now and look almost as fresh as the Day I put them in. There are 3 of them are starting to get a little 'goose pimply' all over the top of the leaves, like they are Cold, so I hope that's a good sign. Note that on this last batch I speak of, I didn't soak things in PPM, just put it in the media.

I did a very poor sterilization on the cuttings, (only did about 11 minutes in 5% bleach solution and 2 rinses) come to find out, so it's a real test for the PPM. The cuttings did come from plants that were grown strictly indoors all of their lives.

I put a seedling heating mat under the cultures and that brings up the temperature nicely, but the direct heat touching the bottom of the jars is distilling the water out of them. Then it drips down on top of the explants. I need ambient heating and not the mat, apparantly, as I'm always dumping water and I'm sure that will lead to hardened medium over a short time, and not to mention bringing up the ingredients too strong in the media. I think it will lower the PH as well with less water content to buffer things; not sure.

One of the hardest things I've been trying to do, is getting the media perfect in consistancy as I hear this is very important; as I'm sure You know. My seedlings stalled out in the old media, a little on the hard side, but when transferred into the fresh, more gelatinous media, have really seemed to be liking it.

Also, what kind of closures are You using? I sprung for the magenta Phytocaps for the baby food jars.

IMO, having, young, fresh, indoor grown tissue to start out with is probably the single most important thing that can make a big difference in success or failure, right out of the gate; I think that is what has saved Me this time around; that and the PPM in the media.

That's about all I have experienced in My very short stint and can chime in about.

Good Luck !

swerfer wrote:when are the seedlings strong enough to replate them in hormone containing culture medium?

I've not yet put any seedlings on hormones. Simply using 1/2 to 1/3 MS with vitamins makes the plants grow enough that I don't need hormones. If I were to put some on hormones, I'd probably wait until they are fairly large, perhaps after 5 or 6 months in vitro.

I think hackerberry put some babies on hormones, but I don't recall the results.