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Newbie questions abou tissue culture

I was wondering if anyone had some experience with tissue culturing. I have seen some dramatic results of hundreds of flytrap leaves in one jar. I am relatively new to growing CP's (this year is my 3rd year) but I am certainly passionate about my hobbies. I would love to eventually propagate my CPs for trade/ebay.

From what I have seen, there are a few "kitchen" TC kits that could get me started, but could someone give me an estimate on start-up cost? I know I would need everything in the kit, , but from what I have read, I would also need some jars, pressure cooker, other stuff.

Is TC extremely intense, requiring hours of meticulous work, or is this something that a hobbiest would be able to start and keep going?
 
You can do it easily enough, if you follow sterile procedure or as sterile a procedure as best you can. I made a transfer box with a large clear rubbermaid with 4" holes cut out for my arms to fit in through the front, you look down through the clear top. Make sure you wear no-powder latex or nitrile gloves (new pair each time) and fog the room you're working in with Oust disinfectant/air sanitizer. I wiped down the inside of my box with rubbing alcohol before doing anything.

I bought a good 21 quart pressure cooker (with the pressure gauge on the lid) at the farm store in the canning dept for $90. I had bought one from Wal Mart but it didn't have a pressure gauge and I was rather concerned about what pressures I was really getting with it.

I'd suggest looking at this book before you start collecting supplies:
Plants from Test Tubes an Introduction to Micropropagation
http://www.amazon.com/Plants-Test-T...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245563967&sr=1-2


This book gives you lots of info for getting started doing everything from an at home on-the-fly setup to erecting a TC lab consisting of several rooms. It gives you a pretty thorough overview of what Tissue Culture is, how it works with different plant types, the various stages of culturing, different culturing medium recipes for different plant types, introduction to various tools and their cheaper/DIY counterparts, etc. And it's 1/2 what I paid for the book years ago!


Phyto Tech Labs is a good place to get agar and other things from, I've ordered from them before. If they still ship out a catalog, request one they're full color and show everything, mine came with extra info packets on culturing orchids too!
http://www.phytotechlab.com/

Lots of good info on the web too!
 
The start costs is one of those kitchen kits, the box you use for your work area... (what is it like $8) and a digital PH meter which can run 30 to $40 on ebay.

I've only used a pressure cooker once, and prefer to use the microwave method for sterilizing media.

But reading a digital PH measurement is critical vs using paper strips which is almost impossible in my opinion.
 
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