SERVICES

Seed and Plant Material:  If you ship seed, you have two options for the return of plants.  Our lab can either perform a direct seeding into tissue culture media and return a pre-determined quantity (please see "Prices") of plants or, we will select the most vigorous clones and multiply those until reaching the agreed upon number of plants.  Of course, if you choose the latter, the actual number of clones could be quite small.

    Our process for the propagation of seeds or plant materials is as follows:

            1.  We will select the appropriate media based upon the genera and species of plant submitted.

            2.  The seed or plant material will be surface sterilized and put into culture.  Surface sterilization is based upon the plant material as well as the actual type of culture to be performed (e.g. meristem culture, rooting of cuttings, etc.).

            3.  Cultures are monitored for germination/growth and contamination in our light and temperature controlled facility.  Duplicate cultures are maintained to insure against potential losses due to contamination.  We utilize PPM^TM in all cultures and add additional antibiotics and antifungal agents as necessary. 

            4.  Seedlings or clones are further selected for multiplication and grow out.

            5.  The contractee is contacted to arrange shipment.  Digital pictures of your cultures can be provided at any time during the propagation process.

Special Services:  In addition to the standard services outlined above, we offer seed or plant options at additional costs.

            Induced Polyploidy - Treatment with 20 - 50mg/L of colchicine or 20 - 40mg/L of oryzalin can cause plant material to double the number of chromosomes.  In horticultural plants such as orchids, this often leads to an increased flower size.  While there can be no guarantee of these chemicals effects on carnivorous plants, it is possible to obtain clones with exaggerated foliar characteristics.

            Gibberellic acid - Obtained from fungal cultures, gibberrellic acid acts as a plant growth regulator and can help to stimulate seed germination in recalcitrant species.  Gibberellic acid also promotes stem elongation. 

            Smoke Water - Our lab uses Super Smoke Plus Cape seed primer developed by Dr. Neville Brown and available from Fijnbosch Farme Trust in Cape Town, South Africa.  Certain seed benefit from pretreatment with smoke water to break dormancy.

            Custom rooting - Our greenhouse has a dedicated propagation area for the rooting of Nepenthes cuttings.  This area maintains bottom heat of 80° F (27°C) and a misting cycle of 15 seconds every 7 minutes.  Our substrate is a laterite-like material that retains moisture and promotes germination.  We treat all cuttings with hormones to induce the fastest formation of adventitious roots with generally good success.  You supply fresh material or inquire about rooting from our stock plants - we have a large number of Nepenthes species and hybrids from which to choose.

         A section of the propagation area.                                             A typical rooted cutting.