elaineo wrote: ↑Sun Nov 06, 2022 5:25 pm
That's what I don't understand! Neps are not that difficult to propagate via tissue culture. Couldn't ICPS propagate them and sell them as a fundraising activity, the same way Meadowview Biological Research Station sells plants?
Nepenthes are quite difficult to introduce to TC via explants because all species contain a symbiotic fungal strain that hangs out inside the stems. The process to remove this strain for tissue culture almost always kills the cuttings. Some nurseries like Carnivero, however, are working on better methods to exterminate the fungus when introducing nep cuttings to TC.
The most effective way to introduce Nepenthes material in-vitro is via seed. Seed is quite difficult to acquire of most species and usually has very short viability. Furthermore, some commonly-poached species such as edwardsiana are not fans of multiplying in-vitro which makes it even more difficult to grow out meaningful amounts of these species to reduce the desire for poached specimens.
Lastly, a couple certain nurseries (
cough RedLeaf
cough) are determined to convince growers that TC plants are always inferior to their “seed grown” cousins via a string of delusional and/or misguided assertions, which is also effectively hindering the mass-production of these species and keeping the prices (and corresponding incentives for poaching) high.