So, mainly out of enjoyment, I'd like to try tissue culturing. I'd be most interested in propagating drosera and germinating nepenthes. I've done some research before, but is thereany recommended tutorial or supply source people could recommend? What pitfalls should I be on the lookout for?
Thanks as always,
Kyle
First and foremost --
and I am not joking -- have a fire extinguisher on hand, when flame sterilizing instruments and maintaining any open jars of 99% isopropyl alcohol. I keep one within arm's reach, mounted to the wall.
Secondly, crack a book; and I wholeheartedly recommend
Plants From Test Tubes, which is in its third or fourth edition by now. It was a standard of college horticulture classes. There are also myriad tutorials on YouTube; flytrapcare.com; on the ICPS site; but, first, learn those basics.
Learn sterile technique;
learn it. The biggest frustrations to novices are serial contamination issues, which can usually be attributed to ham-handed laboratory behavior. One clean room that I worked in had a chart on the wall outside, that described how plentiful and easily contaminants can be spread.
Sitting or standing motionless, in the lab setting, allowed for 100,000 particles of 0.3 microns or larger to be sloughed off, per minute, in terms of regenerative things like skin cells, perspiration, and hair. Behavioral categories such as walking at 2.5 mph, produced 5,000,000 particles; 3.5 mph, 7,000,000; 5 mph, 10,000,000; and what had been described as "horseplay," produced 100,000,000 particles per minute; so no Greco-Roman wrestling during transfers.
For the broader strokes, and for supplies, I would recommend hometissueculture.org. Their prices are generally far more reasonable than laboratory resources; and they now sell individual hormones in powdered form, along with KOH solutions, with which to dissolve the plant growth regulators, which are generally not water soluble. KOH -- potassium hydroxide -- is nasty stuff and is not called caustic potash without reason. Follow directions religiously.
Invest in a decent pH meter; twenty bucks and a slow boat from Kowloon just won't cut it.
Finally, determine where you will be doing your transfers -- whether it is a plastic tub or aquarium on its side; or whether you'll invest in building or buying a laminar flow hood. In the long run, you'll want a hood of some form . . .
