Twin Scaling of Galanthus
Matt Mattus (Tue, 07 Dec 2004 13:39:51 PST)

When I triple-scale (Tri scale) Nerine sarniensis, I use a sterilization
procedure in which the bulb chips are submersed and agitated in a 0.525%
solution of sodium hydrochlorite for one hour.

I can't respond as to how successful this is on this years Nerine, but so
far it looks good. This is the preferred method for many hard to
micro-propagate amaryllids such as Crinum according to a research paper by
the Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A & M from 1999.

It stated that the most successful sterilization method was where the chips
we're soaked in a hot (50 deg. C) tap water for 1h, then placed in flasks
with a solution of 0.525% sodium hydrochlorite containing 0.1 Tween 20 and
agitated for 1h, then rinsed three times with sterilized water under a
laminar air-flow cabinet, all damaged tissue was trimmed and the chips
dried.

Of course, I am not a scientist, since a kitchen served as my lab. I ordered
my lab material from an online laboratory supply house, as I used
vermiculite in poly zip bags for my first batch, and a second in babyfood
jar flasks containing a Murashige and Skoog agar solution.

So far things are looking good, I have about 30% failure but hey, these are
Nerine. I have no idea is these same methods would work with Galanthus. (Can
you even chip galanthus?!)

Best of luck

Matt Mattus
Worcester, Massachusetts
USA

On 12/7/04 6:30 AM, "Hans und Babs Joschko" <buj.joschko@freenet.de> wrote: