Hey guys and gals I wasn't sure where to post this bit I figured here would be suitable.

Now my question. Has anyone here ever came accross a tissue culture protocol for and plants in the Psychotria genus? It's been an interesting thought and seems like fun but I'm not even sure how to go about doing a tissue culture for this type of plant as Iv Never seen anyone post anything about performing tissue culture on plant from the Psychotria genus.

Please chime in with any knowledge or advise

Thanks & peace

-2j

I started in on a TC project for P. viridis many years ago before anyone found out about leaf cuttings. Don't remember even what hormones I used, I think it was 2,4 D and IBA? on a Murishige and Skoog nutrient base on agar. I trashed the whole experiment halfway through when news came out about propagating from leaf cuttings. Made my efforts kinda moot. In retrospect I wish I had seen it through because I did the whole matrix thing to find out which hormone ratios were the best. At least I could have gotten some useful data, but nooooo...

Since Coffea arabica is closely related to Psychotria, I used published ratios for that species as a starting point. Something to think about.

Wow thanks for the swift reply !!! and another reason I'm wanting to do TC over a cutting is due to the young age of my viridis I can't go pop a leaf as in only has 5 . And thanks for the info ill for sure look into the arabica and see what I can dig up... Do you have any general advice for a TC newcomer?

Also how far along did you get before your trashed it?

I just recently tried this with some psychotria alba leaves. I cut the leaves up into six pieces. I think three shoots was the most to come out of one.

The conclusion I came to is that making leaf cuttings is the way to go.

Off one leaf cutting I normally end up with four or five plantlets. And it takes about the same amount of time as it did using tissue culture plus it's already rooted. You don't have to worry about being as sterile or having contaminants. All in all less work. I just cut a leaf throw it in a cup with some water then once it has roots started throw it in a cup with moist perlite and put a bag on top of it.

I also tried starting some banisteriopsis caapi leaves. That's been more interesting. I haven't had any shoot come up from them, but a lot of callus growth. Hopefully something will come from that soon.

The top three pictures are from psychotria alba the fourth one is callus tissue from a banisteriopsis caapi leaf.

Nice work there Herbal.

Just so you know, many years ago I and some others were experimenting with caapi leaves as well, rooting them in regular potting soil. I'd cut the leaf in half just to one side of the midrib and plant with the midrib down. They threw tons of roots and were healthy for months and months, but they never formed shoots the way Psychotrias do. My conclusion at the time was that they don't possess the genetic makeup or ability to initiate aerial growth when attempting to propagate that way. So I gave it up.

Will be very interested to see what you come up with there!

Wow herbal very nice work!!! I too am Interested to see how the caapi turns out !!