Tissue culture, or micropropagation, involves taking a portion of
a plant, surface sterilizing it, and growing it on a special medium under
sterile conditions. For our Custom Propagation, we have divided this process
into 1- Culture Initiation, 2- Multiplication, and 3-Root Initiation. At all
times, the plant under micropropagation is the property of the customer and can
not be propagated and/or sold to anyone else.
1-Culture Initiation
Culture Initiation is the process of cleaning and excised portion
of the plant (explant), culturing the explant on initiation medium, and checking
for any bacterial or fungal contamination. This is a critical step in the whole
tissue culture process since the cultures will not grow well with any
contamination and the explant will not survive too harsh a cleaning process. As
with all stages of tissue culture, many aspects of the mother plant (its
species, growing condition, portion excised, etc.) can influence the survival of
the explant. Success rate for obtaining clean cultures can range from 0 to 90%.
In order to maximize our success we gather as much information as
possible on your plants species (its culture needs, current propagation methods,
previous tissue culture attempts, etc.) as well as the plant material you will
send us (type of plant material and amount, growing conditions, etc.) before
developing an initiation protocol.
The initiation process will take a minimum of 8 weeks and require
at least 30 hours of senior scientist labor. If the initiation process produces
less than 10% surviving cultures, we will make adjustments to the protocol and
repeat the initiation.
2-Multiplication
During the multiplication phase, we take the sterile initiated
cultures, run a multiplication trial for optimum multiplication rate if
necessary, then multiply the cultures by repeated transfers until the needed
number of plants is obtained. At this point a portion of the plants (usually
500 to 1,000) will be removed from the culture for root initiation. The
remainder will continued to be cultured with plants removed for rooting at 4 to
6 week intervals until the number ordered by the customer has been filled or the
customer cancels the service.
As with Initiation, we use the information gathered about your
plants and your needs (number and size of plants), to determine the proper
multiplication protocol. In cases were there is little or no information on
tissue culture of your plant, a trial of several multiplication media will be
needed. The multiplication rate (how many new shoots have grown from a single
shoot every 4 to 6 weeks) will determine the number of cultures that need to be
maintained and so affect the final price per plant.
3- Root Initiation
Once the multiplication cultures are established, a portion of
the shoots will be removed every 4 to 6 weeks and placed on a root promoting
medium for 6 to 8 weeks, with the lids removed for the last 2 weeks. This
begins the rooting and acclimation process which will need to be completed upon
delivery. Though most do, the plants may not show roots and may need to be
treated as tender cuttings.
- Custom Propagation Contract
Proposal and Payment:
In our proposal to you, we will present 1-Culture Initiation as
one single cost, with 50% due at signing and return of the service contract and
50% due upon notification of successful initiation. Any proposed
multiplication trials, in 2-Multiplication, will also be presented as one single
cost. Another proposal will be sent to you for your approval if further culture
initiation or multiplication trials are recommended. Multiplication of the
cultures will be invoiced on a monthly basis as the cost per flat of plants
cultured that month. 3-Root Initiation will be invoiced as the cost per plant
and due along with shipping charges upon delivery of the plants.
- Shipment Of Mother Plant Material
It is very important to have healthy, clean, actively growing
plant material for successful initiation. Seed pods and seeds may also be
cultured, and often show less contamination than plant parts, but you will not
get a clone of the parent plant and plants produced should be considered more
like seedlings
Prior arrangement and notification of shipment are
essential since we prefer to initiate the cultures from all the plant material
sent (except seeds) within 48 hours of arrival. After you have accepted the
proposal, ship dates for the parent material need to be scheduled with SMK
Plants at least 1 month prior to shipping.
-
Cancellation of Contract
You may cancel the service at any time and choose to have any
plants in culture destroyed or shipped to you.
- Survival:
Customers accept full responsibility for plant survival once the
plants have been delivered.
