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| Now that I have learned how to micropropagate bananas, I plan to continue this work, and expand into the heliconia and ginger family. I had wanted to micropropagate heliconia originally, but since I only had 15 weeks, I was advised to use bananas because they were readily available here at TREC. I've collected some interesting heliconia species and I plan to try and initiate them into culture in the coming weeks. Web site visitors will be able to see my progress here as I will continue to photograph my work. | |
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Heliconia lingulata Ruiz & Pavon cv. Fan is seen above and to the right as a bare rhizome. Today (4/21/00) I selected 2 buds from this rhizome to initiate into culture. |
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Using a scalpel, I made 4 incisions in a square around the bud. After the last cut I was able to pry the bud tissue away from the rhizome. |
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The heliconia buds were then placed in cheese cloth and rinsed under tap water for 15 minutes. |
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