Botany and Horticulture are blanket terms used to describe any plant oriented activity. I thought this would be a great time to talk about the differences and similarities. Horticulture is the study and activity of growing and caring for plants, and developing new species, hybrids, and techniques. Botany is the science of plants, identifying species, and making scientific correlations. These two academic disciplines are both wildly interesting. A Horticulturalist can tell you the best way to grow a certain type of flower in certain types of conditions, and a Botanist can identify what types of flowers and fauna are present around you outdoors, and why they grow there. As we take a close look at these definitions I encourage everyone to check these two links from Wiki on the two sciences. Botany on Wiki - Horticulture on Wiki – With all that being said, if we take a close look at what kind of science applies to us and the kind of gardening we do, I think its fair to say we are Horticulturists. Maintaining and perfecting the growth of our plants is the ultimate goal. I must admit that Botany remains an incredibly interesting part of it all too. Here is a quote from a Botanist – “I’m a botanist and everyone always asks me to help their house plants grow better when I tell them that, so I inform them that, “Horticulturists keep plants alive for a living, botanists kill plants for a living.”since we have huge collections of dried pressed plants called Herbariums for verifying species identifications.That’s a bit tongue in cheeck, and I try to be a bad botanist, keeping a pretty thriving garden going, but I’d definitely say that botanists look more at plants in their natural habitat and try to identify species and how they’re related, whereas horticulturists try to create new species and figure out how to grow plants in new habitats.

Happy Aloha friday gang! Lets get into some hardcore science today. Today’s topic is Micro-Propagation / Plant Tissue Culture.

If you have ever wondered what kind of plant science you would be doing if you were in a university program for Horticulture, BAM, this is it. I recently discovered this technique because we had a plant tissue kit that was begging for someone to use it. My curiosity got the best of me and later that night I found myself deep in the throws of a full on academic endeavor. All I can say is, after 20 years of taking cuttings, our community now needs this level of precision, technology, and science. I am so excited about this knowledge and I look forward to sharing it with you guys now.

What is Micropropagation?
Micropropagation is a way to clone plants axenically (sterile). Terminal buds collected from branches of mature plants are surface sterilized and placed in test tubes containing a specific nutrient medium. The different media we are experimenting with usually contain a carbon source, vitamins, plant hormones and antibiotics. Plantlets grown from buds of the same plant, barring mutation, will be clones (i.e., genetic replicates) of the plant from which they were cut. Once we are able to maintain rapidly multiplying plant stocks in the lab, we can use them as a source for additional micropropagation or subculturing. Subculturing involves dividing sterile plantlets into smaller segments and growing plants from these pieces. This is how we grow Widgeon-grass (Ruppia maritima) in the lab, and we are in the process of developing this technique for Shoal-grass (Halodule wrightii). Widgeon-grass is the easiest seagrass to micropropagate; other species, such as Shoal-grass (Halodule), Manatee-grass (Syringodium filiforme) and Turtle-grass (Thalassia testudinum), are increasingly difficult. We are focusing on one species at a time.

Why Use Micropropagation?
Compared to standard nursery techniques, micropropagation has the potential to produce more plants in less time. Fewer stock plants are needed because an explant can supply a great amount of material from which clonal material can be subcultured. Also, not having to rely on seeds and other propagation methods ensures greater uniformity in plants produced. Clones can be screened for different attributes and used for specific applications, or genetic variability can be assured by mixing different clonal strains in restoration projects. Another advantage to micropropagation is the contamination-free condition of the plants produced and the ability to produce microbially fit stocks that resist pathogens.

We have plant tissue kits available, give us a call 1-866-PGS-GROW