Thoughts on Tissue Cultures

[Jurrian Hering]

As the title says I’m curious everyone’s thoughts on tissue cultures. Not a very popular thing here in the states but the few times I’ve tried them I’ve never had success. What do y’all think about them?

[Cory]

My personal opinion is they are still too expensive in the USA. The education for them is missing. I find they are much more popular in Europe, because they are cheap. I get approached by labs that make tissue culture plants, and it sounds great until the logistics of getting them into America.
 

Most tissue cultures I see in America are past their sell by date really. Because they are brought over in large numbers to try and keep the price reasonable. They sit in a fridge trying to keep them from growing at a wholesaler. By the time they get to a store, and the store actually sells them, it's been months since they were cultured and are struggling on nutrients and space etc. Not all are like this, but I think to "launch" them in USA, we need more people having more success with fresher cups.

[Expectorating_Aubergine]

I like them. Great way to get a lot of hard to get plant material for a reasonable price. I've never had issues with tissue cultured stuff...

[Jungle Fan]

I'm with @Jurrian Hering and @Cory on this. I have friends and family in Germany who love them, but those available on the U.S. market so far have been underwhelming in regards to quality in my experience as well. 

[lefty o]

i think they are great. ive got crypts, and anubia's i bought as tissue cultures at one of the box stores a good decade+ ago that just keep growing and growing.

[MattyM]

I tried a culture of Staurogyne Repens and it is doing wonderfully. I think I paid $15 at the LFS, worth is - beautiful plant, which I've read can be problematic regarding melting and spreading said melting to its neighbors, so was glad to start with the culture, not to mention supporting my LFS. 

[Mmiller2001]

Hit or miss. Mostly miss. Just my experience.

[nabokovfan87]

There are some plants I will only buy via tissue culture or hobbyist grown because I know it's not deteriorating the natural environment where the plant originates (hygro pinnatifida as an example).

I have had good success with tissue culture plants, but as Cory mentioned I can't really walk into a local shop and buy any.  Online, it's hard to trust anything and you have no grasp for size.  Often photos seem of very micro size plants compared to what you would get normally for something hobbyist grown.  Moss, tissue cultured is a very good concept.  Other plants you have to pick and choose your battles. 

Just like most everything in the US, there are buzz words used to hike prices. It's a foolish thing, but that is the nature of business (or simply advertising) here.

[Mr Gumby]

On 1/3/2023 at 8:12 PM, Cory said:

My personal opinion is they are still too expensive in the USA. The education for them is missing. I find they are much more popular in Europe, because they are cheap. I get approached by labs that make tissue culture plants, and it sounds great until the logistics of getting them into America.
 

Most tissue cultures I see in America are past their sell by date really. Because they are brought over in large numbers to try and keep the price reasonable. They sit in a fridge trying to keep them from growing at a wholesaler. By the time they get to a store, and the store actually sells them, it's been months since they were cultured and are struggling on nutrients and space etc. Not all are like this, but I think to "launch" them in USA, we need more people having more success with fresher cups.

For once it looks like the UK and Europe actually does something in the hobby cheaper than the US 🙂

Our 'Pets At Home' which would be the closest thing here to Petco carries Tropica tissue culture plants and they're also available in my LFS and lots of online stores

Generally there is a good selection and often they have 3 for £10/15 deals depending if you want the cups or the taller packs which at roughly a 1 to 1 £ to $ exchange rate is good value

I find you get a lot of plants for your money but you have to be prepared to grow on young small plants which potentially where Europe having more smaller/nano tanks works better than the US as they 'appear' mature faster in a smaller tank??

I don't buy them for the snail free aspect but I know a lot of people here do so a plus or a minus depending on your point of view

[Rube_Goldfish]

I tried three of them (Alternanthera reinickii, Cryptocoryne wendtii, and Rotala H'ra) and all of them just immediately melted and never rebounded (going on about two months now). I am not running CO2 and it's a 55 gallon tank so there was a lot of water for the light to penetrate, so maybe it was just user error. I might try again someday in a smaller tank or if I ever try injected CO2. They were from my LFS at three cups for $30.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Rube_Goldfish
Forgot a word