Tip of the Day: Decontaminate Tissue Cultures and Clones

“Decontaminate Tissue Cultures and Clones. Tissue-culture growers sterilize specimens prior to installation by utilizing bleach, alcohol, soap and purified pH-adjusted water. They mix one part bleach with nine parts distilled water and repeat the formula with alcohol, phosphorous-free soap, and a final rinse with water with a pH of 7 or above-each in their separate containers. They briefly submerge the plant material in the bleach cleaner, then remove and rinse it in the pH-adjusted water, then move it to the alcohol cleaner, then rinse again.

The same method can be employed to clean or wash plants before they enter the quarantine area. Some plants may only tolerate half-strength washing-as the method of using stronger solution ratios can be detrimental to young plant tissue. But typically, cultivators may add between 5-percent and 10-percent additive to the distilled water. The final rinse solution can also include 1-percent to 2-percent sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) as a mold inhibitor while plants are in quarantine. In case any plants turn up infected, the proliferation and environment contamination will be minimized.”
— Kenneth Morrow, author, consultant; owner of Trichome TechnologiesTM; CBT contributor and advisory board member