Hello Mr. propagator! I was wondering: do latex gloves reduce the risk of introducing non-sterile matter into the petri dishes? Do they allow you to move with a bit more freedom? Thank you!
That is a great question - a lot of my students wore gloves because they thought that it reduced the risk of contaminating cultures. But, I NEVER wear gloves when I work in a hood or under aseptic conditions. Gloves protect the wearer from what we are working on, usually not the other way around. You can wash your hands and get them as clean as you would gloves. But, you can feel things and work more efficiently when you are not wearing gloves. Gloves may give the wearer a false sense of being "cleaner" but this is not the case. I do wear gloves when working with nasty chemicals to protect me from the chemicals. I have seen some videos of people actually "handling" tissues with gloves on but that is really bad technique - you should use clean sterilized instruments when working with tissues and clean them by alcohol, flaming, or heat sterilization often. Ungloved hands are much better for working with instruments.
I bet this is already in your "videos to do" list (or maybe there is already a video about it), but I'm really curious waiting for these results on the different types of media and how much of a difference they will make in seedling growth! As I told you before, I do things a lot less scientifically in a very amateurish home setting. My objective is coming up with the easiest, cheapest, most accessible way of doing orchid seed propagation with results that will suit the amateur. No expensive equipment at all. I call it "finding the technological ground level", that anyone can work with, anywhere in the world, on almost no budget at all. And then, you can build up on to it, improving your lab conditions as your own personal budget allows. But my "thing" is finding the bare minimum conditions that are actually functional! That is why I don't prepare or buy media formulations. I use the bare minimum, Agar, coconut water, tomato, banana and cucumber. Plus crystal sugar from cane, of course. And that is it. I do add a tiny bit of NPK, very dilute, for replating young seedlings which already have a couple of leaves and roots, but not before that. It works well, but I would love to understand how much the media is responsible for growth rate, rather than other factors like lighting and gaseous exchange... Forgive the long comment, but you must have realized by now how much I appreciate your channel and the information you provide in it! I can't thank you enough, my friend!
Believe it or not, you are already at a high level of technology for orchid seeds. There are lower levels and I am planning to do a video on folks who do not even want to deal with making media, based on some things that I have recently learned from orchid-growing colleagues. I use a medium that I developed myself, based on my years of working in the lab (not with orchids). It is a hybrid medium with some teachings from the orchid world and some things that I learned on my own. Media optimization is a real challenge but there are some modeling software packages that allow for more rapid optimization. I do use banana in my media but try to stay away from too many undefined addenda, due to variation in the components. If your media are working for you, that is more than most can say and keep it up! For the real minimal seed germination method, I am working on a new video.Thanks for watching and for your comment!
Hello sir, if I may ask what university do you work at? I did a brief week of micro propagation at a carnivorous plant nursery down In New Mexico, but would like to do more if possible and would like to learn how to do this as a career. Sorry for the long comment 😅
Thanks for your comment. I am retired from my faculty position at the university and did not do much work with orchids when I was on the faculty. I love plants and the plant sciences and it did not matter to me which plants I studied since I am a plant cell biologist. It did not take me long to realize that it was easier to build a program if I worked on field crops - I worked in the area of soybean biotechnology for most of my career but grew orchids as a hobbyist at home. I started seriously working on orchids in my old university laboratory when I was close to retirement. If you want to have more of a conversation, please e-mail me at theplantpropagator@yahoo.com
Thank you so much for the constructive criticism - I know that I do this - I see it when I watch my videos and will put more of an effort into stopping this. I guess that it is an old habit when I struggle to find things to say and overemphasize certain things.
@@plantpropagator I explain things the same way. Sometimes I feel like I need to repeat things multiple times when I don't think people will listen when I tell them that a detail or certain procedure is important.
So useful. Thank you so much for the great work.
Hello Mr. propagator! I was wondering: do latex gloves reduce the risk of introducing non-sterile matter into the petri dishes? Do they allow you to move with a bit more freedom? Thank you!
That is a great question - a lot of my students wore gloves because they thought that it reduced the risk of contaminating cultures. But, I NEVER wear gloves when I work in a hood or under aseptic conditions. Gloves protect the wearer from what we are working on, usually not the other way around. You can wash your hands and get them as clean as you would gloves. But, you can feel things and work more efficiently when you are not wearing gloves. Gloves may give the wearer a false sense of being "cleaner" but this is not the case. I do wear gloves when working with nasty chemicals to protect me from the chemicals. I have seen some videos of people actually "handling" tissues with gloves on but that is really bad technique - you should use clean sterilized instruments when working with tissues and clean them by alcohol, flaming, or heat sterilization often. Ungloved hands are much better for working with instruments.
@@plantpropagator that makes a lot of sense! Thank you for the information
I bet this is already in your "videos to do" list (or maybe there is already a video about it), but I'm really curious waiting for these results on the different types of media and how much of a difference they will make in seedling growth! As I told you before, I do things a lot less scientifically in a very amateurish home setting. My objective is coming up with the easiest, cheapest, most accessible way of doing orchid seed propagation with results that will suit the amateur. No expensive equipment at all. I call it "finding the technological ground level", that anyone can work with, anywhere in the world, on almost no budget at all. And then, you can build up on to it, improving your lab conditions as your own personal budget allows. But my "thing" is finding the bare minimum conditions that are actually functional! That is why I don't prepare or buy media formulations. I use the bare minimum, Agar, coconut water, tomato, banana and cucumber. Plus crystal sugar from cane, of course. And that is it. I do add a tiny bit of NPK, very dilute, for replating young seedlings which already have a couple of leaves and roots, but not before that. It works well, but I would love to understand how much the media is responsible for growth rate, rather than other factors like lighting and gaseous exchange... Forgive the long comment, but you must have realized by now how much I appreciate your channel and the information you provide in it! I can't thank you enough, my friend!
Believe it or not, you are already at a high level of technology for orchid seeds. There are lower levels and I am planning to do a video on folks who do not even want to deal with making media, based on some things that I have recently learned from orchid-growing colleagues. I use a medium that I developed myself, based on my years of working in the lab (not with orchids). It is a hybrid medium with some teachings from the orchid world and some things that I learned on my own. Media optimization is a real challenge but there are some modeling software packages that allow for more rapid optimization. I do use banana in my media but try to stay away from too many undefined addenda, due to variation in the components. If your media are working for you, that is more than most can say and keep it up!
For the real minimal seed germination method, I am working on a new video.Thanks for watching and for your comment!
Hello sir, if I may ask what university do you work at? I did a brief week of micro propagation at a carnivorous plant nursery down In New Mexico, but would like to do more if possible and would like to learn how to do this as a career. Sorry for the long comment 😅
Thanks for your comment. I am retired from my faculty position at the university and did not do much work with orchids when I was on the faculty. I love plants and the plant sciences and it did not matter to me which plants I studied since I am a plant cell biologist. It did not take me long to realize that it was easier to build a program if I worked on field crops - I worked in the area of soybean biotechnology for most of my career but grew orchids as a hobbyist at home. I started seriously working on orchids in my old university laboratory when I was close to retirement. If you want to have more of a conversation, please e-mail me at theplantpropagator@yahoo.com
I love what you do. But sometimes you repeat things over and over. Once or twice is enough. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the constructive criticism - I know that I do this - I see it when I watch my videos and will put more of an effort into stopping this. I guess that it is an old habit when I struggle to find things to say and overemphasize certain things.
@@plantpropagator I explain things the same way. Sometimes I feel like I need to repeat things multiple times when I don't think people will listen when I tell them that a detail or certain procedure is important.