Journal December 27, 2013 Plant Tissue Culture Propagation

 Several years ago there was an orchid breeding greenhouse locally that we used to visit. While there I would watch them tissue cloning orchids under hoods. They were using microscopes and placing small bits of plant material in petri dishes and placing the petri dishes into incubators. I thought: Good Lord, you must have to have at least a Ph D to tackle that.

Over the years the process has evolved so that it is possible to do tissue culture at home, so I thought I would give it a try. As I needed a sink and clean environment, I elected to wait until my wife was going to be out for a while and use the kitchen for my laboratory.

I used an opaque storage container for a hood. The storage container had to be sterilized with 90% alcohol, along with everything else used in the process, A small section of green growing branch tip was removed from a Mission and Pendolino olive tree. It was necessary to wash the plant material in detergent, alcohol, beach with detergent and finally sterile water. Rinsing was also required several times between each wash.

The sterile water rinse was performed under the hood, along with all trimming and placing the plant material into the vials containing the nutrient gel. The vials have been placed in a sterilized container under a small T5 grow light, where in a few weeks new plants should begin to develop. That is if I have the process correct, but if not I will try again, as I found it fascinating. It should be possible to produce hundreds, or thousands, of plants from a tiny piece of the plant.

Here is a link with more information, and youtube also has several videos on Plant Tissue Culture for anyone interested.

http://hort201.tamu.edu/YouthAdventureProgram/TisueCulture/TissueCulture.html