Four stages from mother plant to grower.
Tissue culture moves through four standard stages. We use the same notation throughout this site — so you always know which step of the work we are talking about.
-
Stage I
Establishment
A small piece of healthy explant — often a leaf section, node, or apical meristem — is taken from a chosen mother plant. It is washed, surface-sterilised, and placed onto sterile nutrient medium inside a sealed vessel.
This step takes one to four weeks. If the explant survives surface sterilisation, stays free of contamination, and begins to grow, the culture is considered established. From this point forward, the plant lives entirely in vitro.
-
Stage II
Multiplication
The established culture is moved onto a multiplication medium — typically Murashige & Skoog base with a calibrated cytokinin (commonly BAP) to encourage shoot proliferation. Every four to six weeks, the cultures are sub-cultured: divided up and transferred onto fresh medium.
One vessel becomes several. Several become dozens. Dozens become hundreds. This is where the multiplication rate is built, and the discipline of clean handling is everything.
-
Stage III
Rooting
Once enough shoots exist, individual plantlets are transferred to a rooting medium — typically with reduced cytokinin and a calibrated auxin (IBA or NAA) to trigger root development. This stage takes two to four weeks.
A successful Stage III plantlet has a visible, white, branching root system and is ready to leave the sterile vessel.
-
Stage IV
Acclimatisation
The rooted plantlet has spent its life under 100% humidity, sterile conditions, and constant temperature. It now needs to learn to live in the real world.
Plantlets are washed free of agar, transplanted into a sterile substrate (typically peat or a peat-perlite mix), and held in a high-humidity environment that is gradually opened to ambient conditions over two to six weeks. This is the most fragile stage; we provide acclimatisation guidance with every commercial order.
The lab.
Suiwerkweek runs with a horizontal-flow laminar cabinet, autoclaved Schott bottles and culture jars, calibrated digital scales for media preparation, a refractometer and pH meter for medium quality control, and a dedicated growth room with LED lighting and temperature control.
Media are prepared from research-grade Murashige & Skoog salts and vitamins, with plant growth regulators dosed gravimetrically. Every batch of media is autoclaved and recorded; every subculture event is logged against a batch number.
Growth room · controlled conditions
How long from your mother plant to my field?
The honest answer: it depends on the species, but here is a realistic range for a typical project.
6 – 10 weeks
For species already in our active rotation. We take an order, scale the multiplication, root the plantlets, and dispatch.
10 – 16 weeks
Species we have not actively cultured but for which a literature protocol exists. Includes initial establishment time.
3 – 6 months
Species without a documented protocol. Includes media trials, hormone calibration, and stabilisation of a clonal line.
4 – 6 weeks
Once a line is established and rotating, follow-up batches at regular intervals.