Journal January 25, 2015 - Tiny Tomato Plant

The Florida Petite tomato plant is just under five inches high, has numerous flowers and several immature tomatoes.  My objective was to evaluate the soil mix, which is working out really well, however, I am beginning to get really into this project at this point.

The Koroneiki olive tree is flowering, so I am hand pollinating several times a day so the plant will set fruit.  Within the next few days the flowers on the Arbequina olive will begin to open, so I will not only pollinate that plant, but I will cross pollinate the two plants to see if that increases the number of fruit set.

The photo above shows an olive embryo,  which has been removed from the seed and placed into tissue culture.  After removing the seed from the drupe, I removed the seed coat from the seed and placed the seed in moist paper towels for a four weeks.  Using a sterile scalpel, the embryo was removed from the seed and placed into protocol.  Within a few days the embryo began to turn from white to green, so photosynthesis is beginning: one might say I performed a Cesarean section on an olive.

The same procedure has been performed on several additional seeds, with more beginning to turn green; the cultures are on a heat mat under a T5 24 watt grow light running 24/7.