Cephalotus from seed

[angry vegan]

Has anyone here successfully cultured ceph from seed? i have some fresh from a friend and i want to put it in culture
all i've read so far is to use a very weak ms media like 1/5 or 1/10
also heard about removing embryo from husk which improves germination and reduces contamination

anyone had any experience with this?

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

I used the Phytotech Cape sundew germination powder. You can look it up on their website. Not sure if I took off the tufts, you want to avoid touching the seeds.

 

[John Yates]

my advice is to stratify the seed first for min of 2 months in the fridge @ 4 c or so ,use dry strat for T/c or you will get to many conatms if you use wet strat , use fine T/c charcoal in your media i use 8 mg / 1Lt , put in last thing after PH reading, after gelling agent is put into your media and stir in with warmth ,this for some reason helps with germination and growing of the cephs , no need to extract the seed from the husk , very time consuming and fiddly for no real benefit , just do not handle the seed at all with fingers use clean tools for any work on the seed ,use * clean * paper packest in to a air tight container for stratification in fridge ,will help with sterilization before sowing after sterilization

 

[angry vegan]

cheers john, will do.. ill put a couple in now without strat because i was sent quiet alot and put most in the fridge and see how the difference is.
How would u sterilize them? i probably just do like a ppm mixture with tween and let it soak for a while
have seen someone mention charcoal for ceph in particular before, will have to try find some activated charcoal to use

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

PPM is for when you have gross contamination or when you're not confident of your technique. Plus then you have to use PPM in the medium.

 

[angry vegan]

PPM is for when you have gross contamination or when you're not confident of your technique. Plus then you have to use PPM in the medium.

Yes i will be using ppm in the medium also. i dont have a LFH

 

[John Yates]

I have moved away from PPM for my own reasons , but see many people still use it all well and good, for sterilization pre soak your seed for 24 hrs in sterile water in the flow hood in sterile container with a good stirring ever hr or so or as long as you can in the 24 hr time ( I leave my UV light on in that time just dont look at it if as you work on the soak container) ,with clean tools , I use a 18 gauge 2inch draw need on the syringe as easy tool to use . , then draw the soak water out ,sterilize the container in 10% bleach for 10 min , make a 10% bleach or a chlorine mix up and soak the seed for up to 10 min and rinse off in sterile water, once is all that is needed for 5 or 6 min and sow on your media , at 10% ,bleach soak for 10 min is contamination free usually , its not the seed you have to be concerned about its the husk the seed inside if keep in good conditions will be sterile

 

[angry vegan]

cheers john, by 10% do u mean 10% of a standard bleach from the shops (which is like 4-5% active ingredient) working out to like 0.4-0.5% active ingredient? or use a stronger chemical to make 10% mixture?

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

You take standard household bleach and dilute 10 cc with 90 cc water.

 

[John Yates]

yes , thanks Lloyd , we have different strength Bleach here in AU i believe , so follow Lloyd guidance here and use non scented bleach too ,makes a difference .

 

[karmelo]

h

my advice is to stratify the seed first for min of 2 months in the fridge @ 4 c or so ,use dry strat for T/c or you will get to many conatms if you use wet strat , use fine T/c charcoal in your media i use 8 mg / 1Lt , put in last thing after PH reading, after gelling agent is put into your media and stir in with warmth ,this for some reason helps with germination and growing of the cephs , no need to extract the seed from the husk , very time consuming and fiddly for no real benefit , just do not handle the seed at all with fingers use clean tools for any work on the seed ,use * clean * paper packest in to a air tight container for stratification in fridge ,will help with sterilization before sowing after sterilization

Hi, one question, charcoal 8 mg or 8g /l, my digital scale the minimum weight is 0.05 g, how weigth this ?

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

8 mg sounds trivial but 8 gm seems high. @John Yates , clarification please?

 

[karmelo]

i think that is 800 mg/lt for charcoal and 5.7 ph, but all my tc is 5.8 ph

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

I've seen 0.5->1.0 g/l. I use the pH that Phytotechlabs suggests for orchids.

 

[John Yates]

Just did a weigh up on my scale ,to make sure what i am talking about, , the scale is in grams, the amounts is 0.700 gm to 0.800 gm so its milligrams

 

[John Yates]

i think that is 800 mg/lt for charcoal and 5.7 ph, but all my tc is 5.8 ph

the PH is not overly fussy, long as it above 5.5ph and under 6.5 ph as the agar you use and if or charcoal will change it slightly evening it out after auto-claving .

 

[karmelo]

ok,thanks