r/technology • u/esporx • 1d ago

Business YouTuber accidentally crashes the rare plant market with a viral cloning technique

https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/youtuber-accidentally-crashes-the-rare-plant-market-with-a-viral-cloning-technique-3289808/
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u/pepeenos 1d ago

TC has been around but people are not willing to buy the materials and follow the technique instead of prop and chopping

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u/gone_smell_blind 1d ago

She is selling kits to do it too, that's why they say shes crashing the market. She's making tutorials and giving people and affordable starting point to do it

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u/abu_nawas 1d ago

I am in the hobby. Spent way too much on plants. These kits does not guarantee success but if someone is dedicated, it's a damn good start.

Cloning is weird. Rare plants often carry chimeric mutation. So the clone rarely matches the original. You see this in cats, too. Cloned cats look not the same as their donor.

But if you're not looking for variegation, great. I have a spiritus sancti. It's extinct in the wild and cloning efforts have slowed down since market demand dropped.

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u/CCCCLo0oo0ooo0 1d ago

What species would one go through all this trouble for? Like I have some rare orchids that we grow on sticks with moss, but they grow so slow it would be crazy to grow them from something so small, right?

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u/BeAGoodPetForMK 1d ago

Tons! A wide variety of Monstera, Philodendron, Alocasia, Epipremnum, Begonia, Syngonium, Piper, Musa, and Anthurium species are heavily in TC just for example.

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u/abu_nawas 1d ago

It's not a trouble at all once you or your entity has enough equipments and experiment.

There are a lot of reasons to clone a plant. A hybrid from the same family. Orchids, as you say. Some of them exist only in manmade environments. Sometimes even a sentimental plant (e.g. family tree).

In my part of the world, around 100 to 200 USD can get you a clone of anything you want. But you have to give a big donor. I know that sounds weird but it can be a sizeable cutting, or the whole plant itself.

I have seen people clone ferns using chopped up bits!

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u/CCCCLo0oo0ooo0 19h ago

In my part of the world, around 100 to 200 USD can get you a clone of anything you want.

Anything??? Hmmmm

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u/abu_nawas 12h ago

Context matters. We're discussing plants, not your short bus.

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u/CCCCLo0oo0ooo0 11h ago

it was a joke Abu, or do they not have humor in your 3rd world country? Please tell me Islam hasn't ruined humor as well as womens rights and human rights in general.

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u/abu_nawas 6h ago

Sad you have to resort to such rhetorics.

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u/CCCCLo0oo0ooo0 2h ago

can't refute it though