Re: _D. adelae_ & stuff
Phil Soderman (sgrower1@coyote.rain.org)
Fri, 21 Jan 1994 21:50:19 -0800 (PST)
Kevin Sometimes in hybridization very few seed are produced from a cross.
In that case planting the seed in tissue culture avoids the problems of
damping off, slugs, drying out or any other grief. You might be able to
get some rare types of hybrids. Sometimes a cross will not allow full
development of the seed . Embryo rescue-tissue culture can be used to
save seed that would not develope in the seed pod. Another reason would be
to multiply plants where seed is rare. Once I grew Philodendron tuxla
from seed. The seed source had a disaster and only produced 1000 seed one
year. I put the seed into tissue culture with a multiplication type of
media and grew more than 20,000 plants from that block for 3 years until the
seed supply came back. Don't forget that in the orchids the sowing of
their seed on nutrient agar substitutes for the natural fungus living on
the seed pod and the sugar that it produces from decaying organic matter,
without that system we would have orchids only by division. Maybe someone
can come up with some other reasons. Phil Soderman sgrower1@rain.org
Carpinteria, Calif where my tangerines are the best ever.
On Fri, 21 Jan 1994, Kevin Snively wrote:
> sorry i'm a bit late answering my mail? the mail?
> i'll start with a question. WHY propigate seed in tissue culture? isn't
> that doing things the hard way?
>
> on the _D. adelae side i've been growing this one for a while now.
> almost four years now. my first winter with this plant in the green house
> i got caught in seattle by a snow storm and my greenhouse froze. 18 deg
> f. for about as many houres. all the above ground portions died off and i
> thaught i'd lost the plant sure. i kept the moss alive expecting too use
> it in the spring and about the end of april or mid may when i went to use
> the moss there it was. that summer i devided the plant and last winter
> one of the devisions stayed in the house and one in the greenhouse this
> year the one that dies back to the root in the greenhouse is larger and
> healthier than the ones in the house. while i admit the winter i give
> them may be a bit much i think they may just need a rest.
> krs
>