Re: CP digest 607

Edward Gilding (egilding@lava.net)
Wed, 31 Jan 96 09:30 WET

Ok tissue culture people. I got the rest of the procedure down (I think)
and I am wondering if there is any way to reduce the amount of contamination
from nepenthes explants in stage 1.

Here's the beef of the problem, Nepenthes aren't all that common and cutting
them up really breaks my heart, however its much easier to take an explant
than to chop the poor thing into cuttings. Well, I've taken explants from
numerous Nepenthes on numerous occaisions, and out of the total of 15-17
explants taken, only about 3-4 did not die from contamination (but later
perished from the disinfectant itself, turning brown etc.) I used to use
Chlorox often, but I noticed that although it really killed germs, it wasn't
to easy on the explants too, even when they were soaked for only 5 minutes.
The remaining explants that are alive (and a few of the dead ones) have some
kind of delayed contamination it is obvious that it does come from the
explant itself, and almost always from the inside of the leaf axil. Now I
tried peeling back the leaf slightly and letting the disinfectant do its
business, and it worked better to some degree but all of the explants died.
The explants are 1, 2-4 node cuttings of mature growth. The article I have
of Nepenthes TC used axenic derived seedings instead of stem explants.
Nepenthes seed (viable ones anyway) is not easy to come by.

Has anyone used any alternative method with success at disinfecting
nepenthes with household ingredients, times of soaking, protocol, etc.

Thank you
Edward Gilding
egilding@lava.net