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Post by calorchis on Jan 21, 2008 0:14:00 GMT -5
Hey everyone, This may sound dumb, but what advantage is there for using tissue culture to propagate CPs over naturally sowing seeds? Are there certain CPs that have difficult to germinate seed / rarely set seed, and so TC is used? I ask because I will shortly be commencing an orchid seed germination project - I guess I'm kind of spoiled because my line of work involves cell culture and sterile practice (I work in a medical research lab) so I have lots of resources already... Since I'm going to be doing some orchids anyway, I thought - hey! why not throw some CPs in as well for fun? So yeah, if anyone has anything they want propagated that isn't *too* precious (because this is my first time ever doing this, so it'll likely be a guinea pig) let me know and we can arrange something! I'm glad I found this section of the site - there's so much info here I'm going to spend the next 2 days readin!
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Post by lloyd on Jan 21, 2008 20:55:37 GMT -5
I'm still a newby but evidently VFT's can be propagated from seed much faster in TC. I'm giving it a go this winter with mixed results. I also tried darlingtonia and sarraceniae and some sundews. I'm mainly trying it for fun. One thing I've noticed is that lots of CP seeds take 6 months or so to germinate and I've found it's easy to keep a little bottle in TC for long periods waiting for germination. If you need any TC stuff, I might be able to share. Using explants with CP's is really hard, I have had really bad experience with internal moulds, phenolic oxidation and dying explants.
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Post by calorchis on Jan 21, 2008 23:50:21 GMT -5
Sweet - yeah I have no experience in sterilizing explants! That's a good idea - do you keep your flasks under lights? I'm mainly going to order some media - I have flasks and all the other crap that's needed but if you have any media/recommendations for good media, let me know!
I just read today that VFT take like 4 years to grow to large size...like apparently they're really puny the first few years? Does TC make that faster?
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Post by lloyd on Jan 22, 2008 11:21:41 GMT -5
At least one of our group grows VFT's really fast in TC. I use lights. Check out my "diary" in this section somewhere. PM me if you're making an order. Either we can get together or I can spare you some stuff.
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Post by calorchis on Jan 23, 2008 16:12:43 GMT -5
Awesome - I'm going to be making an order soon from the orchid seed bank project (http://members.cox.net/osp/osp/media/media.html) - probably just going to get some P668 medium, and maybe some N1 medium and orchid seed starting medium. I'm debating whether or not to get PPM but I don't feel like spending 30 dollars on it + S/H...I'm expecting my order from rareexotics any day now, so I think I'm going to pop some of the seeds into TC and some on just normal chopped sphag, and put em both under lights and see what happens!
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Post by lloyd on Jan 23, 2008 21:14:14 GMT -5
The N1 medium sounds interesting but I've had zero success with nep seeds in TC. PPM is worth it in my (newby) opinion. Also the PPM is $30 including S&H to Canada. If you want to try PPM, I wouldn't mind giving you enough to make up 100 cc of medium, it would only be 0.2 cc at most. My 30cc had lasted a long time but it doesn't leave much to share. If you need any activated charcoal, potassium citrate/citric acid or MS salts, I have some extra.
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