View of tissue culture cabinet Click image to view larger size

One method that we have historically used to use to grow Venus Fly Traps was Tissue Culture. This involves taking tissue from a plant that you wish to clone, sterilising it totally, and then embedding this material on an agar medium which has been enriched with micro nutrients.

This can be a complicated process. All steps must be done in completely sterile conditions. Once completed the plant cultures must then be placed in artificial light, at a constant temperature.

Some bigger international outlets have proper growing rooms for this purpose, which are thermostatically controlled and have flourescent light tubes going twenty four hours per day. Carnivorous Plant Nurseries used a similar approach, but on a smaller scale. We built a rather large bookcase type of arrangement and installed lights above each shelf. We have since gone away from this method of propagation in favour of the old fashioned hard graft means of growing, because in our experience the plants are a lot stronger, hardier, and seem more able to survive in bad situations. None of our plants are now grown from tissue culture.

Agar and nutrient filled pottle Click image to view larger size