It’s now been a little over two weeks since I sowed seeds of Cryptocoryne nurii in vitro, and so far I have not seen any contamination. Almost all the seeds are showing some signs of shoot development in various stages. Here’s one that’s looking promising…
Besides C. nurii, I’ve tried a couple other crypts as well. About 10 days ago, I used two auxiliary shoot of Cryptocoryne ciliata as explants. One of them had fungal growth on it within a week. The other one is looking pretty good and is showing signs of shoot development.
I’m going to try a few more crypts in the next few days, wish me luck!
Ghazanfar, may I safely assume you took explants of the ciliata from emersed plants? In watching the DVD from the 2008 AGA convention of Dr. Michael Kane’s talk, he gave the distinct impression that trying to take explants from plants grown submersed was an exercise in frustration…
Yes, you’re right – the explants used were from emersed grown plants. Although I have not tried this with submersed grown plants, with my little experience so far, I know there is a fine between getting explants sterile and killing them. Submersed plants are easier to kill. So either you’ll end up with a dead plant, or a non-sterile one. Its not worth even trying. Especially since its very easy to obtain emersed grown plants.