What is tissue culture?
Simply put, plant tissue culture is a technology that successfully cultivates complete plants or specific plant tissues by culturing plant cells, tissues or organs in vitro in a sterile environment.
If you want to grow a complete plant, why should you use this method? Isn’t it possible to plant seeds directly?
Direct seeds are of course possible, but plant tissue culture technology can provide us with more possibilities, such as rapid propagation of fine varieties, preservation of endangered plants, and production of virus-free plants.
Next, let’s take a look at the relevant steps on how to perform plant tissue culture~
Specific steps for plant tissue culture
Step 1#: Begin Preparation and Sterilization of Plant Materials
When selecting tissue culture materials: Choose stem tips, buds, leaves or roots that are healthy and not affected by disease.
Primary cleaning process: Clean the material for about 5 to 10 minutes to remove surface soil and impurities.
Disinfection: Disinfect plant material using 70 to 75% alcohol for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Step 2#: Maintain sterility
Prepare the sterile environment: Before starting the operation, please illuminate the workbench with a UV lamp for 20-30 minutes to sterilize it, and then clean it with 70% alcohol.
Disinfection of tools: Vaccination tools such as pliers and scissors should be burned and disinfected using alcohol lamps. At the same time, operators should use alcohol cotton balls to wipe their hands for disinfection.
Step 3# Medium Preparation
In this step, you need to adjust the composition of the culture medium according to the needs of different plants.
Generally speaking, the culture medium contains minerals, vitamins, sugars and plant growth regulators. When preparing the culture medium, precise adjustment of the pH value and precise dosage of the ingredients are particularly critical.
Step 4#: Cultivate the Plants
During the inoculation phase: place the sterilized plant material on the culture medium, making sure that its slices are in contact with the culture medium.
Temperature: When cultivating plant tissues, it is generally recommended to operate at a constant temperature of approximately 26°C-28°C.
Humidity: Maintain within the range of 50%-70% to prevent excessive dryness or excessive humidity of the air from adversely affecting the culture results.
Step 5#: Transplanting and Cultivation
Removing the Culture: Once the plant culture is growing on the culture medium, indicating that it is capable of growing by producing new shoots, roots, or scar tissue, the small plants can be carefully removed in a sterile environment.
Transplanting process: Transfer the extracted seedlings to a soil mix consisting of peat, pearls and vermiculite.
Transition management: In order for the seedlings to gradually adapt to the external environment, in the first few days, they can be placed in a cool place away from direct sunlight. Then gradually increase the light time and intensity. It is a good way to choose plant growth lights so that they can get more sufficient sunlight.
You may wish to consider using a 20W tissue culture lighting like VANQ. This professional lamp supports series connection, IP65 waterproof design, and can customize the length and spectrum, making it very suitable for tissue culture lighting.
Later cultivation: When the seedlings have adapted to the new environment and entered the normal growth stage, we can consider moving them to the greenhouse or outdoors to allow them to cultivate and develop normally.
However, do not take it lightly. During this period, you need to regularly check the growth status of the seedlings, pay attention to diseases and pests, and manage water and fertilizer to ensure the healthy growth of the seedlings.
Since its establishment in 2009, VANQ has always been customer-centric and committed to providing high-quality LED grow lights for cannabis cultivation, vertical farming, greenhouses and tissue culture.
As an industry-leading manufacturer, we have a state-of-the-art production plant in China and a warehouse in South Africa, ensuring free and fast delivery services within South Africa.
