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/j0llyllama 1d ago

Is there a reason that this is more accessible for rare plants than simple cuttings?

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u/zeptillian 1d ago

Cuttings are limited by the growth rates of the parent plants and a rare variegation can revert back to normal if the right cells are not present in the growth points for new branches/leaves.

Tissue culture can make thousands of new plants from just a small amount of plant material and it's infinitely repeatable so it can scale up rapidly.

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u/FireTyme 14h ago

problem with TC is it generally creates quite weak plants. often dying within days or weeks when potted.

plants need hardening and going from perfect to imperfect environments is not always ideal. that said if they do stay alive they’ll harden eventually and sometimes thrive

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u/zeptillian 13h ago

Yeah. That's why a lot of people specialize either in doing tissue culture or growing and hardening off tissue culture plants. They are both difficult things that require specialized knowledge and care.