OK I admit I'm an idiot dolt when it comes to stem props, but I do have the
memory of an elephant, and my friend Ed Wright never mentioned a shaker
tables or any othe sort of table when he wrote his synopsis of stem props
for OrchidSafari http://www.geocities.com/~marylois/archiv23.html

Granted you may be doing these en masse, but even still....

K Barrett

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
Hey Al,

Seems we are going down about the same route. I have been playing around
with this for about 9 months with limited success. I found Arditti a good
starting point but have really just been winging it once I got started.
One
thing going in our favor is that there are a couple of companies selling
premixed medias. The web site for PhytoTech NZ or Aust was helpful in
suggesting changes to the standard mult mix when using it for Phals. Both
G&B and PhytoTech said they had someone who could help me, but in both
cases
I have been unable to reach these people (always out of country or not in
today).

I have a shaker table so I really am not much help with the drum speed. I
assumed the low speed unit was what you wanted until I looked at the speed
I
run the shaker at. ( I know the speed by the sound and how the tissue
moves
in the flask and not by rpm.) Any ways I tend to run the shaker at 60 to
100 rpm. This is about the same speed I use for cloning Cats and Oncs.
Given that speed, I am not sure the tissue will roll in the culture tubes
with the low speed drum, I would call the company before buying either.

That being said, I have not used the shaker for the last 4 or 5 months
because I was having better luck with solid media. One of the protocols
in
Arditti starts in a shaker, but quickly moves to solid media --I guess
this
is the route I have gone. Funny but I am having better luck with older
media. I get my best multiplication after a dark ring has formed around
the
tissue. I have yet to kill the tissue from the phenyols but I am sure I
will push it too long one of these days.

Currently I am learning by trial and error the size the tissue should be
before dividing and where the dividing should be done. I was losing a
fair
amount of tissue after cutting it up. I cut back on dividing and really
slowed the process down. I have yet to find a balance I am happy with and
wonder if the freshly cut tissue should be treated with something before
being placed back on the media.

Do not be too hard on yourself when measuring your success. I have found
that when sending Phals out for cloning, a batch of 500 plants will take 2
to 3 years before flasks are returned.

Pat

"Al" wrote in message
news
My goal is to expand my experience with stem propagation of Phals by
actually excising the node and attempting to multiply the meristematic
tissue in a liquid media but I probably won't stop there. I was
thinking
of
a roller drum because it looks neat. :-) A shaker table is probably
more
within my budget.

Are Phals orchids which like or dislike a 24 hour light cycle during the
multiplication phase?

I have a book called Micropropagation of Orchids by Arditti and Ernst
published in 1993. It outlines research on propagation techniques for
many
orchids by genera and provides a kind of history of propagation for most
but
I have been told several times that it is dated and newer info is
available
to augment what was compiled in this book. I don't have this newer info
at
my fingertips or really know where to get it. :-( Anyway, dated or
not,
I
will turn to it once I assemble all the little gadgets I need for this
mad
experiment.

Thank you to everybody who offered input. If there is more to come I
will
be on the look out for it.


"Aaron Hicks" wrote in message
...

Al, you don't specify what you want to use it for, but the upper
speed is going to be way too high for tissue culture work with
orchids.

Keep in mind that some orchids don't like 24 hr/day cycles for
tumbling. Some do best with a few hours on, followed by a few hours
off.

I think there are plans on the web somewhere for do-it-yourself
rigs; ditto with eBay and Labx. Save some bucks.

-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ