Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 10/4/2010

Question
What carnivorous plant is healthier :
propagated from seed or TC?
Thank you for your enlightening and encouraging answers.


Answer
We've seen seed-grown plants to be healthier and more robust than plants grown from tissue culture.  Of course, this is a very general statement because some species of plants grow very, very slowly from seed.  In tissue culture, you can apply hormones to speed up the growth.

The thing to think about are your goals.  If you want to propagate lots of plants in a relatively short period of time, tissue culture is your best method of propagation.  This is also true if you want every plant to be genetically identical, such as in the situation of a cultivar, or if you have a very rare plant and it's difficult to get seeds.  

The disadvantage about tissue culture is that if hormones are applied incorrectly, plants can remain stunted for several years before the hormones wear off.  (This has to do with the fact that hormones increase the nutritional requirements of plants.  With carnivorous plants, you can't fertilize them the same way as with regular plants.)

So there are pros and cons of each situation. It all depends on your goals.

If you want to read a very lively debate on the subject, go to:
http://alohanepenthes.com/

On the home page, click on Rainforest.  On the Rainforest page, click on Seed Grown vs TC'd Seed Explant.  As a word of warning, the debate is indeed lively!


Good growing!
Jacob Farin