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Comment by steve_adams_86 | Hacker News Reader

I didn’t realize this weird little world is so wide spread. I’m into tissue culturing and noticed a lot of people becoming a bit obsessed with culturing certain species, but I was totally perplexed when I saw some cultures selling for thousands. Even hundreds is crazy.

This reminds me of the old days when you’d spend quite a bit to get various strains of mycelium. Not as statusy by any stretch, but seems just as bizarre on the surface.

Ultimately these plants are worth pocket change once they flood the market. It’s only impressive to have them while they’re still rare.

Another totally bizarre part is how these genetic mutations which make the plants desirable often disappear as the plants grow.

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I do plant tissue culture at OSU and I'm wondering what you mean, do people do it as like a hobby? I've only heard of it in the context of transformation

Tissue culture is also used without genetic engineering. Orchid flasking is the classic example, since the seedlings require an external source of energy. A symbiotic fungus provides that in nature, but it's easier to replace that with the usual agar medium.

Many other species can be propagated conventionally, but will grow faster in tissue culture. That's typically referred to as micropropagation, and widely used for aroids (like here), flytraps, cactus, etc. It's also common for aquarium plants, I think because that eliminates the risk of introducing pests.

Yes, exactly. I use it for aquarium plants. You can start with a $20 culture from the store and turn it into 100 starter plants over a couple months or so. I love densely planted tanks, and the whole process is just fun and fascinating. If you’ve got the gear already, it’s worth playing around and learning something new.

This was what got me started because I was blown away that bucephalandra was $20 for a tiny pot of cultured starts: https://www.plantcelltechnology.com/bloghow-to-grow-bucephal...

You won’t save much if you don’t already have the equipment, though you can do this low-tech for remarkably little investment too.

Tissue culture is the easiest way to (often illegally) export it out of some countries.

I find it interesting. I think I could make money from it, but I’m not interested in much other than learning and creating a lot of plants to put in my aquariums.

I can propagate plants the old fashioned way, but many of them are incredibly slow growing. Tissue cultures can yield a dozen viable plants per jar, then I can grow them out in semi hydroponic settings until they’re suitable for putting into a tank (at which point I kind of “drip acclimate” them to their destination tank for a week or two to prevent melting (in which an environmental shock causes foliage to senesce).

I’d like to see interesting mutations out of curiosity, but so far the clones are identical to their parents. I use relatively low-key hormones, so that might be why. I only keep chemicals that won’t harm my kids, more or less.

I've had nothing but trouble with plant tissue culture. A lot of mold contamination and never any growth or rooting.

Did you use a still air box or laminar flow hood when working with your cultures?

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