So what I am wondering about is the role of inositol in micropropagation, because I couldn't find it and didn't use it with the rest of the recipe.

I'm also wondering about the steps of micropropagation, one step to help the plants start to grow and then rooting three months later. Is that necessary?

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The recipe I used was this: (great, I can't find the site I used now, so I'll have to have a go at it from memory).

-2 tbsp of Almond flavored agar (small town, will use gellright next time)
-1/4 tbsp fertilizer
-20 drops of superthrive (wasn't sure if I should or not)
-2-3tbsp of coconut milk
-2 cups water
-1/2 multivitamin

I think that was it. I haven't invested in a pH meter yet, so I couldn't check that.

Hopefully this works, but if not, it was an experiment.

And the plants I tried this with were: dwarf banana (part of a leaf and the tip of a new root), bromeliad, giant bird of paradise, and I'm going to try a passiflora. All parts I used were of new growth.

Anyway, any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
ERic

The hardest part of this procedure is generally the regeneration of plants with both roots and leaves from the callus tissue. Most often this requires switching the pieces cut from the callus mass to a different media to initiate the growth of one or the other organ. Then the plants must be grown in sterile media till they are big enough to pot out. Be especially careful to remove all the culture media from the plants when this is done, or mold will kill your plants.

You can find a lot of web pages on these things from a Google search.

The body is also able to manufacture Inositol. It is available from wheat germ, brewer’s yeast, bananas, veal, pork, liver, brown rice, and wheat bran, cantaloupe, oat flakes, nuts, unrefined molasses, raisins and vegetables

Inositol is said to promote healthy hair, hair growth, and helps in controlling estrogen levels and may assist in preventing breast lumps. Inositol is a vitamin that is utilized by the body for a variety of metabolic processes.

I don't recall how we cleaned and sterilized the inside the hood, perhaps someone was paid to do that as part of their financial aid package.

We used glassware for the most part rather than disposable plastic. We had to wash our own glassware. Started with ordinary dish soap. After a casual rinse we would do a second wash with a solution of "Tween 80", I think that is now called something else. Then several distilled water rinses and dry in an oven or dry by rinsing with alcohol and then acetone then ether.

The plant cuttings to be used were sterilized with a variety of things. Often this was part of the student challenge to find some way to sterilize the plant. Often the professor or graduate assistant would have some variation to be tested by the student so often we didn't know exactly what we were using.