Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffreyp
I remember Keith benson's posts and website on tc of banana plants back in 1999. But who really cares anyhow?
|
For over 5 years now (I think), I've been engaged in email exchange with this forum started by Carol M. Stiff, PhD, who also owns "Kitchen Culture Kits" (
www.kitchenculturekit.com ):
hometissueculture@yahoogroups.com . This forum has wide following around the world, although most of them are here in the US and Canada. At the end of last year, she had a sale on her equipment and kits. I just don't know if the sale is still on.
Keith Benson is a consistent contributor in this forum and has discussed his home banana micropropagation techniques here. I thought I saved a copy of his article on banana TC culture on the web, but I couldn't find it. He made it look easy.
Most of the members of that forum will disagree with Joe's statement that "you don't need a sterile environment". I realize that he was refering to the culture of mushrooms. But in the case of bananas, which is akin to orchids, sterility is of outmost importance. Gabe has already decribed his experience on this.
As someone who has designed mechanical systems for clean rooms in the high-tech/bio-tech/pharmaceutical industries, I am very much impressed by the resourcefulness of many of the members in designing/making their own equipment, e.g., hoods/clean box, etc. Using anywhere from melamine laminate lined particle boards to rubbermaid plastic storage boxes for their hoods/clean box. Of course, they can't make your own HEPA filters, but there are other sources of HEPA filters than the high tech industry suppliers. Even home depot sells them. Then, if they have the correct size fan, depending on the level of cleanliness you want to achieve (the amount of cfm determines the Class), access gloves, and closures, they're all set.
PPM may be expensive, but if you consider that you can use ordinary materials with it, like distilled water from Walmart, compared to chlorinating/h. peroxide treatment, ozonating, UV irradiation (which if the water processors are supposed to do anyway) by yourself, it might be a trade-off. And PPM stays with the material longer than those other chemicals.
As a friend of mine would say, "My 2 cents."