Tissue Culture: The Next Frontier (Part 1) with Dr. Nathan Jahnke & Deanna Felton

In the first part of this Tech On Demand discussion, Dr. Nathan Jahnke (Culture Research Manager at Ball Horticultural Company) and Deanna Felton (Production & Propagation Manager at Sunbelt Greenhouses) set the stage with an overview of commonly used terms, how exactly Tissue Culture material is produced and the most common product forms you can expect to receive from TC labs. Then they dial in on critical components for success before taking you crop by crop through common TC species—ranking them in terms of difficulty to produce.

 

Part two covers preparation, inspection and grading, as well as best practices for acclimation and the importance of providing feedback to labs and suppliers. Nathan and Deanna wrap up with some of their tips for TC, based on a lot of experience with this product form. Be sure to listen to part two when you’re done with this one!

 

Over the past 50 years, commercial greenhouse production has been revolutionized many times—from seed to plugs to vegetative material, just to name a few evolutions. The newest frontier for professional growers is Tissue Culture (TC): The growth of cells derived from living tissue in an artificial medium.

 

Producing from Tissue Culture is certainly cutting-edge, although it’s not brand new to the world of horticulture. As more and more crops are offered from TC and production teams gravitate to this type of young plant input for many advantageous reasons, there’s bound to be a steep learning curve. TC plantlets are not like unrooted cuttings, plugs or liners—they are quite different and require new skills.

 

There is significant research underway and new strategies for TC production being published and now is the time to begin learning ways to produce TC-raised crops efficiently and effectively. That is the basis of this video series.

 

Join Dr. Nathan Jahnke, Culture Research Manager at Ball Horticultural Company and Deanna Felton, longtime Production and Propagation Manager at Sunbelt Greenhouses in Georgia for a 2-part podcast diving deep into Tissue Culture production—approaching the topics from both research and application angles.

 

DOCUMENT—Tissue Culture Language & Commonly Used Terms: https://ballseed.com/PDF/Tissue-Culture-Frequently-Used-Terms.pdf

 

WATCH THE VIDEO PRESENTATIONS FROM THIS PODCAST—DIVIDED INTO SEVEN PARTS: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8NX3KFjAfBliX4GfYRnSDWfcFa7WNU4i