Last week we began our propagation part of the course. We went on a field trip to Waimea nurseries in order to see their bench grafting in action. While we were there the guy speaking with us mentioned that they were in the process of setting up a tissue culture laboratory. I found this quite interesting so decided to do a little research on growing plants from tissue culture.
The first video I found has a good overview on tissue culture and how it has evolved over the years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuwV3ywCxW8&list=WL&index=3&t=0s
It also points out some benefits of tissue culture:
- Large numbers of plants can be grown in a short period
- Healthy plants can be grown from diseased plants
- Plants without seeds can be multiplied
- Useful when sexual reproduction is not possible
https://www.plantcelltechnology.com/pct-blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-plant-tissue-culture/
This website is also a good overview and it notes some of the disadvantages as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKxgPXOTH4M
This second video is a bit longer but touches on some more interesting points. Kaylee talks more about tissue culture for growing houseplants and how beneficial it is for filling the sudden customer demand that can come with houseplant popularity. She is based in the UK and mentions that 80% of plants in "big box stores" are grown from tissue culture. I would be very interested to know what our percent is here in NZ, I imagine it would be a lot lower!
Kaylee also talks about how the scientific developments in tissue culture are kept secret as it is important intellectual property to the businesses that are researching it. Dave at Waimea Nurseries also touched on this, not just in reference to tissue culture but to any research and development in horticulture. He said that the industry can be somewhat cut-throat when it comes to new ideas. At the end of the day it all comes down to money, and the right intellectual property can mean financial gain for a business.
It seems that growing from plant tissue culture is all about mass production and it may just be the way of the future!
wow 80% that is a massive number, I agree with you the percentage in NZ would be ALOT lower.
ReplyDeleteBut NZ is coming into tissue culture I know Waimea is currently doing this as the last fieldtrip when we went there, he was mentioning how they are expanding into this.