Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 14:18:05 -0000 From: Nigel Hurneyman <NHurneyman@softwar1.demon.co.uk> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg114$foo@default> Subject: Hello from James Lavin / Byblis Gigantea
Welcome James, you may be able to answer a question I have
been unsuccessfully touting around for some time now.
At a lecture in plant propagation, the speaker said that if you
can get a bit of plant to produce callus material, you have
propagation cracked because the callus material can produce
everything the plant needs by way of shoots and roots.
Byblis Gigantea is a pig to propagate. Seeds are the best way,
although it is difficult to pollinate, the seed doesn't seem to
keep well and germination rates are very poor without chemical
assistants such as Gibberellic Acid. Other documented methods
are stem cuttings and root cuttings, both of which require more
courage than possessed by many hobbyists.
I tried straight leaf cuttings but they all died very quickly, so
I decided to try layering. The leaves contain three circular
thingies running through them - I severed two of them and pinned
the cut into moist peat. For a long time nothing appeared to
happen then the leaves started to die back from the cut towards
the stem, leaving the leaf ends to survive on their own. When I
uncovered the cut region, it was surrounded by white knobbly
material. Further investigation revealed that the cuttings had
produced long slender roots, unfortunately unsuitable for root
cuttings. At that point I thought I had it cracked, but then the
cuttings went brown at the tips, and slowly died back to the
white knobbly material, which then turned to mush.
Why didn't the callus material produce any shoots? Was the
lecturer over-generalising?
Good luck with your research, Nigel Hurneyman
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