Articles
THE DEVELOPMENT AND ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMERCIAL TISSUE CULTURE LABORATORY
TLL offers a general disease-indexing and propagating service to growers for their selected cultivars and to breeders to effect the speedy and economic introduction of their new varieties.
TLL research, in this field, started in 1964, and by 1966 propagation techniques for Chrysanthemum, Cymbidium and several other Orchids, had been established.
Attempts to market the chrysanthemum technique met with complete disinterest within the United Kingdom.
However, commercial micropropagation of orchids was started in early 1967 and associated companies were formed to grow and produce cut flowers in the same year.
By 1970 uniform crops of cymbidium cut flowers were being produced in 3 different countries.
During the period 1967/71, tissue culture research continued to concentrate on ornamentals, but on transfer to a new laboratory in Baltonsborough, an expansion of interests into a wider range of plants including pineapple and other bromeliads, palm, barley, tomatoes, various woody plants, various vegetables including asparagus and brassica, and a long list of ornamental types took place.
To create a reliable and economically viable company based on the tissue culture as a plant propagation tool, it was, in our opinion, necessary to provide a service for a wide range of plants rather than link the technique to a nursery specialising in one or a small number of plants.
It was also considered essential that the service to be offered provided an adequate disease-indexing capability.