Product Description

Acclaimed since its first appearance as the most practical guide to plant tissue culture and widely adopted as a textbook, this standard work is now even better. This expanded edition introduces new developments in biotechnology, such as genetic engineering and cell culture. It provides detailed recipes for propagating plants from more than 30 families. It explains clearly how to set up a propagating laboratory, from a hobbyist's kitchen to an elaborate commercial enterprise.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96452 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
"Plants from Test Tubes is the best hands-on how-to-do-it text, including recipes for propagating fifty-four varieties of ferns, flowering plants, and conifers."
—Whole Earth, Spring 2001 (Whole Earth )

"This is an altogether wonderful book for budding plant scientists or gardeners who seek to expand their gardening knowledge."
—Charles Hardman, Herbertia, August 2000 (Herbertia )

"This new edition of an essential reference, updated to include the explosion of scientific information in the related field of biotechnology, remains the most accessible and practical book on the subject." Lydiane Kyte, Wisconsin Bookwatch, August 22, 2000 (Wisconsin Bookwatch )

Plants from Test Tubes is the best hands-on how-to-do-it text, including recipes for propagating fifty-four varieties of ferns, flowering plants, and conifers. Whole Earth, Spring 2001 (Whole Earth )

This is an altogether wonderful book for budding plant scientists or gardeners who seek to expand their gardening knowledge. Charles Hardman, Herbertia, August 2000 (Herbertia )

This new edition of an essential reference, updated to include the explosion of scientific information in the related field of biotechnology, remains the most accessible and practical book on the subject. Lydiane Kyte, Wisconsin Bookwatch, August 22, 2000 (Wisconsin Bookwatch )

About the Author
Lydiane (Ann) Kyte holds a B.S. degree in botany from the University of Washington. She built a plant tissue culture program for Briggs Nursery, now world famous for its tissue-cultured plants.

John Kleyn received a Ph.D. in bacteriology from Cornell University and currently acquires books for Indonesian Universities.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Tissue culture was first used on a large scale by the orchid industry in the 1950s. Some fortuitous early discoveries opened the door to tissue culture for quality orchids, where previously growers had struggled with unpredictable seed or difficult-to-propagate, virus-infected stock. Later, it became clear that any plant would respond to tissue culture as long as the right formula and the right processes were developed for its culture.

With the widespread acceptance of the technique in the nursery business, it is surprising how many people are still not aware of plant tissue culture. Some people ask, when they hear or read about tissue culture, What is it? How is it done? Who is doing it and why? You may ask, Can I do this myself? or, Should I even try? What are the costs of building a laboratory? What are the potential financial returns? Some want to know who invented it or where it came from. This chapter and the ones that follow are designed to help answer some of these questions.

Although the science of botany has become increasingly complex with the explosion in the field of biotechnology, the procedures of tissue culture are not complicated. A piece of a plant, which can be anything from a piece of stem, root, leaf, or bud to a single cell, is placed in that tiniest of greenhouses, a test tube. In an environment free from microorganisms and in the presence of a balanced diet of chemicals, that bit of plant, called an explant, can produce plantlets that, in turn, will multiply indefinitely, if given proper care. The medium (plural, media) is the substrate for plant growth, and in the context of plant tissue culture it refers to the mixture of certain chemical compounds to form a nutrient-rich gel or liquid for growing cultures, whether cells, organs, or plantlets.

Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies. Conventional gardening is limited by the seasons of the year, but tissue culture knows no season. Gardeners who propagate by tissue culture will delight in year-round micropropagation. If successful, they may find they have even more plants than anticipated. Excess plants can be shared with friends or offered for sale, and many ventures that start out as hobbies may turn into businesses.

The hobbyist or amateur gardener need not feel restricted in tissue culture pursuits for want of a transfer hood and a laboratory or any other fancy equipment, such as is required by commercial operations. Small-scale tissue culture is often carried out without benefit of a laboratory or special equipment. It can be done by almost anyone in almost any house. Material can be transferred on a desk or table in a clean, dust- and draft-free room of a home. Transferring cultures in a homemade chamber, with a glass or plexiglass front and just enough room for gloved hands to enter, is a reasonable method for the hobbyist. Furthermore, commercially available premixed culture media, plus a pressure cooker, forceps or tweezers, a paring knife, a few test tubes or jars, household bleach solution, and a lighted shelf, along with a lot of determination, are enough to bring about exciting discoveries for the amateur tissue culturist.

In contrast to the hobbyist, the commercial grower is compelled to make tissue culture a profitable enterprise. Growers with limited resources who must make a living from a small operation are finding that a large number of plants can be propagated by tissue culture with a minimal amount of space and outlay of capital. Oftentimes growers employ tissue culture techniques for one or two cultivars consistent with their operation, and then build a reputation for these cultured specialties. A few such plants that have made reputations for growers include carnations, ferns, iris, fruit-tree rootstock, orchids, and rhododendrons.Whether the motivation for growing plants by tissue culture is profit, research, or personal satisfaction, the potential is there to produce a significantly greater number of healthier plants in less space, with less labor, and at less cost than by other means of vegetative propagation. The potential of plants is far greater than we know. It is as if the grower were a potter, little knowing what could be molded from the clay.

Customer Reviews

Perfect for the novice.
For those just starting out, this is as good as it gets. Good for the beginner, but contains information useful to the more experienced. If you get hooked on this hobby, it shows how to set up your own lab without breaking the bank. The bibliography and list of supply sources will let you go as far as you want.

The Best curently available
This book contains everything that you need to know to start cloneing plants. Some of the material is geared more towards comericial operations but there is a lot for the hobbiest too. I thought that it could have been organized a little better. The authors talk about equipment and media before they go through the cloning process. Parts of it will be boring unless you are planing to actually culture plants. For example there are several step by step lists on how to preform transfers etc.

Soon
Certainly one of the better books I have read on this subject. Very descriptive and scientific. One downfall to the book and to the whole idea of tissue culture is the massive costs of lab equipment and growing media. Very well written book though, and a good starter book.