Apparently repeated meristem propagation affects plant quality - how does this work?
In the evening news yesterday there was an interesting segment about how orchids are growing in popularity thanks to mass production bringing the prices down over the past 2 decades. During the interview of a big commercial grower in the Netherlands, he mentioned that they are frequently in search of new genetics from the breeders in Asia. He said it was because that with each successive round of propagation (meristem propagation I presume) the quality decreases and after a certain number of years, the plant quality is poor.
I can't find more information about this though, and I'm curious to know how repeated meristeming causes a hybrid to degenerate. Anyone know?
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Camille
Completely orchid obsessed and loving every minute of it....
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