tissue culture?

[bden]

Does anyone know where I can get information on meristem culture? I've been looking all over the place for information on how to do it, but cant find anything. I wanted to see if it was worth trying (i have access to a lab). All i can find is that it is very difficult for the home grower, but i cant find any techniques. im also curious as to how long the process takes. thanks-bryan

[weng]

Hi Bryan,
All the information you require is in 'Micropropagation of Orchids' by Joseph Arditti & Robert Ernst. It is published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-54905-3.

Weng

[bden]

thank you so much. sadly it will take a few weeks before i can actualy get my hands on a copy. anyone know of any other vital books?

[gerneveyn]

Kay Greisen's book may be helpful.
http://www.kaysgreisenspecialties.co...anual_info.htm

[Marco]

I have greisen book. It's good and detailed if your into science lab classes and the sort. It doesn't contain meristem information. It does however get into the nitty gritty of flasking how-tos. It gave me headache though (science labs always gave me headaches science was my worst subject). None the less its a great resource. The book has information on specifics on what you need to put into agar and gives approximate pod developement times for certain species under each genus.

Here's a link for more flasking information

http://baruk1.club.fr/baruk1/home/invitro-ang.htm

If you need supplies for flasking phytotech has premade media

http://www.phytotechlab.com

If you need lab equipment theres also

http://www.sigmaaldrich.com

goodluck

[mlrao]

can we do in vitro culture in home any kit

[ScottMcC]

I've said this before elsewhere, but I'll repeat it...

regarding home meristemming:
sterile tissue culture techniques are not all that difficult to do in the lab, but to do so in the home is generally pretty difficult. sure, some people manage to do it, but in general the cost of the equipment is pretty prohibitive (hundreds of thousands of $). the alternative is to use bad equipment and accept that you will lose a very high percentage of your cultures to contamination. I've heard of people using glove boxes made with dishwashing gloves and duct tape though, and they claim to get good results, but I can't endorse that at all.

the real question is why bother? you can pay a lab to do the grunt work for you, and from what I understand, it's not all that expensive compared to the cost of doing it yourself. now I understand you have access to a lab, which is definitely an advantage...but why not find a mentor who can teach you all the techniques you need?

[littlefrog]

You bother because it can be hard to find a lab that gives you reproducible and reliable results... At a price you can afford.

For example, I can't find anybody to do a mericloning run on a couple of my nicer minicatts (awarded ones). To rephrase, I found one lab, but it will cost me $10,000 to do it. I don't have that kind of capital. I could do it myself, if I had the time, for far cheaper.

For flasking of seed, I have a couple of local people who do that for me, but neither is really up to my standards. And I don't blame them, they have real jobs too and it can be hard to keep up with flasking work. Again, if I did it myself I would at least be guaranteed that any mistakes were my own damn fault...

I have done flasking work in the past (in graduate school, when I had time and equipment). It isn't that difficult. Of course it helps that I spent 5 years of my life doing mammalian tissue culture for 10 hours a day... But I think anybody can learn how to do it. At least for seed flasking and replating, that is pretty easy. And I think homemade equipment is fine for that purpose. You can get some good ideas for building flasking cabinets and home flasking techniques at Aaron Hicks' site (http://members.cox.net/ahicks51/osp/). Someday relatively soon I will set up a lab in my basement. When my basement is finished... After the plants are repotted, maybe. *grin*

[tuteca]

Hi!!! you could go to Yahoo! tech groups & try
in Home Plant Tissue Culture, the BEST I have seen in the field!!! Very high level, but understandable for begginers!!!

[newflasker]

There are 2 popular tissue culture (TC) forums. The first one is home tissue culture. Link:
hometissueculture : Home Plant Tissue Culture
This forum is the place for not only home grower but also professional people discuss about the tissue culture. There are a lot of articles, lectures and documentations about the tissue culture so you can learn what it means tissue culture, apical meristem culture, grow regulator and so on.
The second forum is
LISTSERV 15.0 - PLANT-TC List at LISTS.UMN.EDU
This forum is a little bit more advantage. You may talk to some well known professional people, Ph.D, and professors such as Pro. Joseph Arditti, Pro. Kahn, Aaron Hicks and so on. Register then you can access and get email about TC.
Moreover, google for tissue culture you got zillion information about this topic. Go to your library and borrow some TC books is the easiest and cheap way to learn TC.
TC is no longer belong to labs. You want to send your orchid seeds and your explants to a lab to propagation for you it’s your choice. But it doesn’t stop people who want to learn about the orchid seed sowing, TC, and horticulture. Less than $200 bucks you can build a small lab in your basement to do TC. Who sows orchid seeds can do TC without any problem. I teach my sister kids to sow orchid seeds and propagation African Violet for their projects. Explain to them why and how to sterilize; why we need to provide nutrient media; how to replate seedlings and use hormones. They learn quickly and do it better than I do and they love it. That’s money can’t buy others Visa and Master cards will take care of it. Cheers.