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Plant Tissue Culture in the Classroom and Home
for the Serious Teacher, Gardener, Nurseryman or Hobbyist |
What happens at our workshops??
In our basic one day
workshop you will make your own media, build a clean box, discuss aseptic technique (how
to limit contamination), disinfect and culture plant leaves, axillary buds and seeds,
subculture an established culture and discuss trouble shooting resources. |
Many thanks to all the
workshop attendees that provided these photos!! |
After introductions, information on safety, and a presentation by Carol on
"everything"
you need to know for the day, we made media. |
 
Supplies for media preparation (left); adjusting pH of the media
(right)
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Media is dispensed with a tablespoon measuring spoon and then
microwaved. |
Besides the media that you make in class, our site coordinator makes
another
100 bottles plus sterile water.
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Next we divide into pairs and assemble our clean box.
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Gwinnett Community College (Atlanta area) |
 
Phoenix
Mesa
Notice that a variety of rooms can be used for the workshop. We prefer long tables
or lab benches, no carpeting, a water source in the room or building, a media
projector and laptop computer, and lots of space as seen in the above images.
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South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia
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Lunch time (no, that is not champagne!)
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After lunch we prepare our clean boxes by spraying or wiping down with
70% isopropyl alcohol. Aprons and safety goggles are provided.
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Atlanta
Olympia
St. Louis
Carol does a demonstration of the different
procedures and then we get
to try everything. These show African violet leaf culture. |
We discuss what axillary buds are and where they are
and then we culture them |
 
Orchid seed culture involves a pre-soak in 5% sucrose + a few drops
detergent
followed by disinfecting in hydrogen peroixde. the hydrogen perxoide and seed
"solution" is placed directly on the sterile media.
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Carol brings established cultures (usually a few
months old) and shows the
class how to divide them and place in fresh media ("subculture"). Then
each pair gets a culture to play with. This is a fern culture. |
Here a culture of vanilla orchid was cut into node sections and
then cultured on fresh media. We have also subcultured banana, orchid
seedlings, African violets, miniture roses, and others.
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We try out different sealing tapes in the workshop: florist tape,
Parafilm.
NescoFilm and Austraseal. Carol will also show you how to put a homemade
filter in metal and plastic caps.
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Michelle from Phoenix made this picture for us showing the African
violet
leaf, orchid seeds, a vanilla orchid and a banana. These were all cultured in
the workshop.
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