Helimaphora from seed: old school and new school . . .

[BigBella]

Here is a photo from this afternoon of some seedlings. Some species are certainly more vigorous than others when it comes to germination, considering that all of the seed was of similar freshness . . .

Heliamphora sp. "Angasima" (?) 28 July

 

[thez_yo]

OMG you have soooo many!!

 

[amphirion]

lol...what are you going to do with them all? XD

 

[BigBella]

Here is a bit of progress since 18 July of my latest batch of Heliamphora seed germinated aseptically in TC media. Though it is a bit difficult to see, cotyledons have been produced.

Heliamphora sp. "Angasima" 4 August

 

[Av8tor1]

Bravissimo, Maestro David

 

[BigBella]

Grazie mille . . . Signore Butcho . . .

 

[BigBella]

Here's a shot of one of the several cultures, as of this morning:

Heliamphora sp. "Angasima"

 

[lance]

Does this tissue culture seed method work for nepenthes?

 

[amphirion]

@lance: yes.

 

[lance]

How exactly is this done?

 

[amphirion]

@lance: same way how the heliamphora seed are...you have the TC media prepared, with cleaned/sterilized seed, and that is placed in the media.

 

[BigBella]

How exactly is this done?

I would encourage you to check out the tissue culture forum at www.flytrapcare.com, where there are overviews of the process, which involves making the solid or liquid media; the adding of hormones; and the practice of sterile technique. It can be fairly involved . . .

 

[Smitty]

good afternoon BigBella. I was wondering if you ever tried to germinate heli seeds in a ms media before? Ran out of knudson and need to do these cultures asap. Thank you sir for the marvelous updates.

 

[BigBella]

Thanks . . .

In the past, I have had some success with the seed and 20% MS media with vitamins, though the Knudsen-C has been far better. I can generally make a batch of the various media in the course of a couple of hours and keep quite a bit on hand . . .

 

[Smitty]

Thanks for the report BigBella. I am sorry I didn't see the response sooner, pretty rude of me!

I went ahead and ordered 10 liters of knudson c media to get me a nice little head start on making extra cultures ahead of time...Lesson learned!

 

[BigBella]

Ten liters is a ton of material to have on hand and you'd be better served by ordering just what you require. Even the powdered media in its sealed foil envelopes has a finite shelf-life; and a single liter can fill dozens of test tubes -- and I seldom ever make more than a liter batch . . .

 

[Smitty]

I don't plan on using all of it once. That would more media than I would know what to do with. I'm just getting my wings here!
Phytotech labs were all out of 1liter packs friday night when I ordered. I tried to place 2 packs into my cart and it came back.."Item you requested is not in stock at this time." Had to go the next one up.

 

[BigBella]

I don't plan on using all of it once. That would more media than I would know what to do with. I'm just getting my wings here!
Phytotech labs were all out of 1liter packs friday night when I ordered. I tried to place 2 packs into my cart and it came back.."Item you requested is not in stock at this time." Had to go the next one up.

Hey, I didn't think you'd blow the whole wad on ten liters; it's just that I try to keep as little unused material on hand as possible. In the future, I would suggest getting your material through Home Tissue Culture Group; they are an invaluable resource and sell discounted media on their site (to members), along with hormones, and most anything else you would need. I purchased my last Knudsen C through them -- for the very same reason you faced. http://www.hometissueculture.org/catalogHTCGsupplies.htm.

They also wouldn't ask you to purchase ten liters of anything . . .

 

[BigBella]

Here is an update thirty days out, and the cultures are producing their first true leaves, albeit juvenile for the foreseeable future. Slow growing to be sure and I am still getting germination; but we're not growing tomatoes here . . .

Heliamphora sp."Angasima" 12 September

H. pulchella "Large Pitcher"

 

[amphirion]

very nice David! those seedlings are looking good! dark green!