“Tissue-culture” - the production of brand-new plants by growing living bits of them in test-tubes of nutritive goo – sounds like weird science-fiction, doesn’t it? What sort of person would get involved in such a way-out thing?  Scientific ones, certainly - plant-researchers, chemists, doctors perhaps; “brainy” types who have studied laboratory techniques and use them in their daily work – but also ordinary, curious, enthusiastic people who have read about this “kitchen-sink” technology in NALS publications or attended one of Judith Freeman’s popular PNWLS “Lily Day” workshops, and been inspired to “be brave,” and try something new! 

While Judith has already covered the technical basics in her workshop handout flyer (available from This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it upon request), and article in the December 2001 NALS Quarterly Bulletin, until I’d tried things for myself, and sorted out what was essential for starting out and what wasn’t, I had many more questions than I knew how to ask! Others have asked me the same things, so in this “beginner’s report,” I’ve tried to keep to just what I’ve learned so far.

Neither particularly complicated or (necessarily) expensive, the techniques of tissue-culture are divided into two categories – the simple “slice-and-dice” method where  various cooperative bits of lily are transformed into brand-new plants, and “Embryo Rescue” (or “ER”), where the living part of a seed from parents of widely different lily species (such as a trumpet and an Oriental) - which normally would die in the pod - is removed from the soft green seed at an immature stage and grown on in a test-tube until it can be planted out. The sterile procedure and “lab set-up” are the same for both ER and TC.

Start-up costs vary, depending on how fancy or involved you want to get, and how much you might have on hand already. Some ingredients of which you’ll need just a tiny bit  can only be bought in bulk, so a few people combining their orders can “spread the costs out” among them. (Judith herself has helped many of her “students” get started, loaning out equipment and sharing supplies, sympathy and advice as needed!)

The first requirement may be the trickiest, and the most important – finding a place to work that you can keep clean and free from disturbance, preferably near a sink. (The first place I tried, a kitchen counter, was handy for me but too much in the way of meal preparation, etc., and the family complained. I finally settled on an upstairs bathroom, where I can keep everything ready between uses, lock the doors to keep out kibitzers and cats, and splash bleach and alcohol around with impunity.)

Next, you’ll need a “transfer-hood,” which can run into serious money if you buy one with all the filters, fans, lights, etc. from a laboratory-supply house, or next to nothing if you happen to have some 1/2-inch plywood, screws and varnish on hand, and make it yourself. The design that Judith uses (diagram attached), is a simple open-front affair with a slanted glass top, so that you can see your work but not breathe on it, and reach in to do what you need to do, easily and quickly. (Judith reports that she has used both kinds, and in her experience the home-made version actually works at least as well as the expensive ones, because working quickly is the most important thing in avoiding contamination of your cultures. An adjustable light that you can aim exactly where you need to look down through the glass is essential, but it probably doesn’t have to be the kind with a magnifying lens on it.  A scrap of linoleum for the transfer-hood to sit on makes an easy-to clean work-surface.

Your tools and test-tubes will need to be sterilized, and this may be done in an ordinary kitchen pressure-cooker or canner. The one I had was a bit too small, but I was lucky enough to find quite a good, tall 10-qt. one at a “Goodwill” charity-store, for $20 – though in the past, I’ve seen bigger ones for even less. The tools themselves – two long-handled dissecting-scalpels with replaceable sterile blades and at least one good “grippy-tip” tweezers - are available from a biological-supply catalog. (“Carolina Biological Supply,” www.carolina.com, is the one Judith mostly uses, so I was able to get the catalog numbers from her – the scalpel handles are “Bard-Parker #7,” from Nurnberg Scientific Supply in Portland); good tools are “pricey,” but worth it. Look in Goodwill – or WalMart – for a ceramic toothbrush holder with a drain-hole at the bottom, and several metal crochet-hooks, in sizes from the smallest (good for fishing around for tiny embryos), to something suitable for excavating nut-meats from walnut shells (for coaxing finished bulblets out of test-tubes). If you have a supply of baby-food or jam-jars you can skip the test-tubes, but if you do buy them, the ones called “disposable” are quite good enough, and they and their plastic covers are totally reusable (as long as you’re a little careful and don’t drop them or bang them around). I like the long 16mm x150mm size that Judith uses, because they give the sprouting lilies a bit of “head-room,” but they come in both shorter and wider types.

Incidental supplies – table sugar, distilled water, bleach, 70% isopropyl alcohol with spray-bottle, measuring cups, strainers and spoons, wide-mouth jars and lids, plastic baggies, work-surface paper, marking pens – are things you would either have already or could easily acquire. (An alcohol-lamp and lighter will be needed if you “flame” your tools to sterilize them – you can use bleach but it rusts metal, or a dentist’s “bead-sterilizer,” but that’s expensive.) The other special purchase is the balanced formula of nutrients and hormones in pre-measured packets, called media “salts” – Carolina has two kinds available, “Murashige & Skoog Salt Base” or “Lily Multiplication Formula” – and the culture-grade agar or “Gelrite” gellan gum, which is expensive but will last you a long, long time - or give you plenty to share with friends! (There are a couple of other special ingredients that you might need for certain “recipes,” like the bud-culture medium, but in such tiny amounts that you’d do well to consult with someone who has been doing this for a while and has them on hand, before investing in the ridiculously large quantities you’d have to buy them in.)