Tissue Culture
Every plant on this page was propagated in vitro, in a laboratory, not grown from a cutting or a division. Below is what that means and how ordering works across our two labs.
China lab
No minimum order quantity
Order a single plant of most varieties, the same as any other listing on the site.
Click here to browse China TC plants →
Vietnam lab
MOQ 50 per variety
Vietnam TC runs on a wholesale model. Each variety has a minimum order quantity of 50 plants, so this stock is intended for bulk buyers and resellers rather than a single plant for your own collection.
Click here to browse Vietnam TC plants →
Wholesale enquiries are welcome from either lab. If you're ordering at volume, get in touch via our Contact page.
What tissue culture means
Tissue culture (TC) propagation starts from a small piece of living plant tissue, an explant, taken from a meristem or a node, rather than from a stem cutting rooted in soil or a division split from a mother plant. That explant is surface-sterilised and placed on a nutrient agar gel inside a sealed flask, where it multiplies under controlled light, temperature and humidity until it forms a cluster of new plantlets, each one genetically identical to the parent.
Two things follow from that process. First, because it happens in a sterile, closed environment, TC plantlets leave the lab free of the pests, fungal spores and bacterial contaminants that field-grown material commonly carries, which is why TC is the standard route for moving rare aroids across borders cleanly. Second, because every plantlet is a clone, its variegation pattern, leaf form and growth habit are reliably consistent from one plant to the next, in a way that seed-grown or hybrid-cutting material cannot guarantee.
TC plants leave the flask small. What you receive is a young plantlet, not a mature specimen, and it will need a period of acclimatisation, out of sterile conditions and into normal humidity, before it grows on as a typical houseplant.
Acclimatising your plantlet
A TC plantlet has spent its whole life in a sealed, sterile, high-humidity flask. Moving it straight into normal room air is the single biggest cause of losses at this stage, so the goal is to lower humidity gradually while root and leaf tissue toughens up.
What you'll need
- Lukewarm water, for rinsing agar gel off the roots
- A soft brush or your fingers, to work residual gel out from between the roots without tearing them
- Sterile scissors or a scalpel, for trimming any damaged roots or leaves
- A well-draining acclimation medium, such as sphagnum moss, perlite, or a fine orchid bark and perlite mix; not garden soil or a heavy houseplant compost
- A humidity dome, propagator, or clear sealable tub, to hold humidity around the plantlet while its roots establish
- A fine mist spray bottle
- Small pots or plugs with drainage holes
- A dilute fungicide, or a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution diluted further in water, optional, to reduce fungal and bacterial contamination risk during the transition
- Bright, indirect light, or a small grow light; TC plantlets come from low, even lab lighting and burn easily in direct sun
- A hygrometer, optional, to track humidity as you step it down
Step by step
- Remove the plantlet from its flask or bag and gently rinse every trace of agar gel from the roots in lukewarm water, using a soft brush if needed. Any gel left on the roots encourages mould once potted.
- Trim off any damaged, blackened, or dead roots and leaves with sterile scissors.
- Optionally, dip the roots briefly in a dilute fungicide or hydrogen peroxide solution to reduce contamination risk during the vulnerable transition period.
- Pot the plantlet into a well-draining acclimation medium, firming it in just enough to hold it upright.
- Place the pot inside a humidity dome, propagator, or sealed tub, and mist lightly. Aim for close to 80 to 90 percent humidity for the first one to two weeks.
- Position it in bright, indirect light, never direct sun, while the plantlet is adjusting.
- From week two onward, begin cracking the dome open for a short period each day, gradually increasing the time out of high humidity over the following two to four weeks.
- Once the plantlet is holding up without wilting outside the dome, remove it permanently and begin treating it as a normal houseplant, watering when the top layer of medium dries.
- Hold off on feeding until new root or leaf growth confirms the plant has established, then feed at a quarter strength or less to start.
We stock everything on the list above, from humidity domes to fine mist bottles, on our Amazon storefront: shop TC acclimation supplies on Amazon.