Journal January 1, 2014 Tissue Cultue Trials

Leccino and Cailletier cuttings were started today which consist of a 1/2" section of growing stem  with a single node.  The instructions I have been following said to remove all plant material, so that is what I have been doing, however, after reading a research paper on  mircropropagation I found that in the case of olives it is best to leave a small section of leaf.  I decided to leave just the small bud found on almost nodes.

Also today I removed the cuttings that had leaves, reduced them to 1/2" sections with a single a node and replaced them in vials.  I will be amazed if they actually take.

Prior to having read the research paper I thought that this was going to be a short process, but the paper said that their trial took 99 days for sprouting to take place. Following spouting the plantlets were moved to a generic media, where they continued to be grown until large enough to be transplanted to their final media.  Bummer...

They also used some growth hormones, which I am not sure if my culture media has.  Going forward I will mix my own media and add BAP, NNA, VitaGrow containing IBA and perhaps Super Thrive just to see what happens.

It will be equally amazing if any of this actually works, but it is a fascinating process, and that is what retirement is all about, keeping busy.