Frankco

Hi novisyatria,

I didn't get around to trying the pineapple yet. I've been busy with other plants, mainly bananas.

I did a test with Gelcarin GP812 on bananas to see if it would help with the problem of phenolic extrudes. So far it seems to being working quite well. I was having problems with about 1 out of 3 cultures. Now, none are showing the problem.
Gelcarin is hard to get. It's actually cheaper than agar, $38 a kilo, if bought in bulk but, everyone jacks the price up to make it more expensive.

One nice thing about Gelcarin is that you don't have to heat it to make a gel. That saves some time. You do have to autoclave it to sterilize it though but no double heating. You can just add 7 grams in water; the stuff dissolves and turns crystal clear. Lovely stuff.

I do want to try pineapple, maybe this weekend. When I do, I'll post some picts of the explant I use. I'm not sure, since I have the crown growing in a pot of soil, whether contamination might have gotten inside of the plant. If so, I'll go out and buy another pineapple from the store and use that.

After I post the pict maybe I could get your opinion on how my explant looks.

Thanks,
Frank

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Frankco
Zone 5
N.W. Indiana