tissue culture and aeroponics question

[jerryse]

I ran across a small tissue culture setup for sale on the web.Did not know there were small units for the backyard crowd.Anyone try one of these?Please share your results if you have.I am soooo tempted.I also ran across aeroponics and ordered a clone king for rooting cuttings.Shipped and on its way.I will share my results when I try it.Says to expect a 100% success on cuttings.Can't wait to try it.

 

[jerryse]

Got my clone king today.Set it up and have 36 cuttings in it.Says they should be ready to plant in 14 days.I will let you know how they turn out.Seems no one on here has tried it yet.

 

[jerryse]

2 /7/13 was day 6 for these hardwood cuttings.Found 2 roots on one of the quince.Some of the other show signs of roots about to come out.This is such a easy setup to use.

 

[sharron]

curious, what all can you clone with this?

 

[jerryse]

Well I will know more in a week.I have never had any luck with quince,lilac.rose of sharon,roses.All of these are in there plus mulberry and butternut.The pot them and humidity dome in the shade with new semi hardwood cuttings has always been 100% failure for me.

 

[HandsomeRyan]

Howdy. I do not have any experience with the home TC kits but I manage a plant transformation lab for a university and I can tell you that I think it would be nearly impossible to keep the sterile conditions required for TC without an autoclave and LAF hood to work in. My lab has almost a million dollars worth of equipment in it and I still have a percentage lost to contamination- I can not imagine doing this on my kitchen counter and having a very high success rate.

What kind of plants are you trying to propagate via TC? The hormones/PGR's alone can run into the hundreds of dollars if you are trying to do different plants which need different PGR's.

Best,
-Ryan

 

[jerryse]

Howdy. I do not have any experience with the home TC kits but I manage a plant transformation lab for a university and I can tell you that I think it would be nearly impossible to keep the sterile conditions required for TC without an autoclave and LAF hood to work in. My lab has almost a million dollars worth of equipment in it and I still have a percentage lost to contamination- I can not imagine doing this on my kitchen counter and having a very high success rate.

What kind of plants are you trying to propagate via TC? The hormones/PGR's alone can run into the hundreds of dollars if you are trying to do different plants which need different PGR's.

Best,
-Ryan

No I do not plan on doing tissue culture.Was just surprised that something was available in that price range.Always heard a lab was needed.My main interest is in cuttings that I haved failed with in the past.Trying to cut costs when I want more plants.Plus rootstocks for fruit trees can be hard to find in small amounts.Suppliers are used to orders per thousand.

 

[HandsomeRyan]

There may be some middle ground here if you just want to root cuttings. I'm not sure how well you could sterilize it at home but maybe in a pressure cooker/canner or something you could try buying some pre-mixed L&M woody plant growing medium. That still doesn't solve the need for growth regulators (and the GR's needed will vary from species to species) but for a few dollars it might be something to play with.
The powdered mix can be found from many different lab supply houses such as:
http://www.phytotechlab.com/detail.aspx?ID=404

 

[jerryse]

Thank you for the info.I will check it out.

 

[flgardengirl]

I don't know why you would need TC setup just to do root cuttings. Most cuttings are very easy to root either with or without a over the counter rooting hormone such as Rootone. Harder ones can sometimes be done by air layering or other techniques.