Gelrite in TC (+pictures)

[dudo klasovity]

Hello!

I would like to share some info and pics of my new TC jars. I have had issues with food store grade agar last fall and because several batches shifted the pH of the media several points up, I have lost some cultures. That was the last straw for me and I decided to upgrade my TC work to next level and thwart the drawbacks of using agar.

Although agar (of high quality) can and does perform very well as a gelling agent, the main issue for me was that the gel was not clear enough to see the first sign of contamination early enough. It is vital for the survival of possibly contaminated culture that unaffected tissues are replated asap. Gelrite forms glassy crystal clear gel where even the smallest contamination can be spotted during initiation and the culture can be saved completely.

Another good thing about gelrite is that unlike agar (even purest grade), it does not contain any organic compounds (such as phenolics) and therefore it does not stress replated tissues and they grow without interruption. It does contain some salts but i have not observed negative effects. And last thing is that you need only 1/5th of the amount of agar to form a firm gel:-)

Here are some (agar and gelrite) based cultures:

d. sp. 'lantau island'

the same but on gelrite

d.natalensis

a very neglected propagation jar with d. peltata

d. capensis (i use as a control), a shot through the sheer medium

d.californica seedlings

d.intermedia 'Carolina Giant' seedlings

d.neocaledonica propagation jar

d. neocaledonica rooting jar

d.ordensis propagation jar

d. ordensis rooting jar (10 days past replating from jar in previous picture)

d.falconeri

d.hartmeyerorum

d.afra

Edited December 18, 2010 by dudo klasovity

[Binataboy]

intersting, will be interested in how the plants go long term compared to the agar :)

George

[UtricSeb]

Hi Dudo,

This is very interesting, the plants look fine with the new gelling agent.

[will9]

Hi Dudo,i hope this work match better for you ,looks very promised so far,

cheers Will

Edited December 20, 2010 by will9

[UtricSeb]

Dudo, do you do something special with the petiolaris complex species? We here had germination of some plants in this group and they initially grew well. Then, when the plants reached around 1 cm in diameter, they started to get black and died.

Edited December 21, 2010 by UtricSeb

[dudo klasovity]

Thank you, George and Willy!

@Sebastian: the petiolaris complex drosera seem actually the most weedy ones under my TC conditions. Never had any problem, they germinate well and then grow very fast until they are mature and I subject them to PGRs and so on. One of the easiest species for me. The only problem I had was with deflasking and acclimatisation of d. ordensis (very hairy clone from Lake Argyle), which was almost impossible to clean of residual nutrients from medium (because of the thick hairs) and often many specimens died of fungal infection when put on peat- but that is another story.

[UtricSeb]

Thanks Dudo,

And are you using the same medium for the Petiolaris as for other sundew?

[dudo klasovity]

Hi Sebastian, yes I am using MS medium , but different concentration from other drosera, the best that really works for me is 28%MS (macro and micro) and 25g sucrose, MS vitamins cut to third as well, but inositol and glycine full. For propagation of shoots i dont use hormones, but other chemical at very high level that works better than hormones (proprietary info) and for rooting i use no hormones or 0.5mg/ml auxin (IBA and NAA mostly) for species that are reluctant to root. Hope this helps:-)

[UtricSeb]

That is very good information Dudo, thanks.

[Binataboy]

Thanks for the info. "works better than hormones"... stop teasing us! ;)

Just before I first saw this thread (literaly got of the phone and jumped on the forum!) I was discussing the use of different gelling agents vs. agar as some agar seems to have a higher salt content that some Drosra don't seem to like. I have got some carrageenan but have not had the time to do any (successful) TC this year

Cheers

George