Our Tissue Culture process

**How We Begin:**

Our tissue culture process starts in a meticulously maintained home laboratory, where we’ve established a highly sterile environment equipped with specialized laboratory tools. To reproduce dahlia plants successfully, we work under a laminar flow hood, which filters contaminants from the air to protect the tissue cultures. Each culture is nurtured in a sterile medium that has been carefully sterilized in an autoclave, ensuring a clean foundation for healthy, uncontaminated growth.

**The Part of the Dahlia We Use:**

For our tissue cultures, we utilize the "meristem" of the dahlia plant—the small, tender base of a newly forming shoot. Preparing this part of the plant for culture requires a delicate procedure, as we isolate just enough of the meristem tissue. We select the meristem because it contains the least viral load, which is important given that nearly 87% of dahlia plants carry some level of viral infection. By focusing on this area, we significantly reduce the likelihood of starting with a plant that carries a virus, setting a healthier foundation for future growth.

**Preparing the Meristem Samples:**

Once extracted, these dahlia "explants" undergo a sanitization process using chlorine bleach and alcohol to eliminate any remaining surface contaminants. They are then carefully placed into our sterile medium, where they’ll begin to develop and sprout over the course of about eight weeks.

**Cultivating and Growing:**

When the dahlia explants start to sprout, we transfer them into a specialized liquid tissue culture medium, known as a bio-coupler. This medium accelerates growth, as the liquid fully immerses the plant multiple times a day, allowing for faster development than traditional mediums. Over time, we switch the medium to encourage different stages of growth—the initial medium promotes shoot growth, while the subsequent medium fosters rooting.

**Transitioning to Mature Plants:**

Once the plants have established roots, we transfer them into a supportive medium and place them under humidity domes to promote vertical growth. As these plants grow, they produce shoots, which we then take as cuttings, root, and nurture into more substantial plants. These are the mature, robust plants that we provide to you.

**Why We Use Traditional Stem Cuttings Instead of Selling Tissue Culture Plants Directly:**

There is some industry concern that tissue-cultured plants may not form tubers as reliably as those produced from traditional stem cuttings. While we’re not scientists and cannot confirm this definitively, we aim to alleviate any potential concern by offering only plants grown from traditional cuttings. This way, you can trust in the quality and tuber-forming potential of each plant we provide.