58 Day Tissue Culture Update 🌿 What's Thriving (or not 👀) & New Substrate

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Do y'all remember eight weeks ago when I deflked some tissue culture plants?

[00:00:03]Well, here they are now. And for the most part, they are looking really, really good. So, basically, I want to go back and talk about what happened in the weeks following the deflask and actually get some of these potted up today, which I'm super excited for. They're graduating into real substrate. Before we get into all of that though, I want to say if you're new here and you don't know me already, hi. My name is Emma and I make house buddy content all over the internet. So if you want to follow along with my house buddy journey and maybe learn something along the way, stick around, watch some more of my videos and subscribe to my channel.

[00:00:42]If you are not new here, welcome back. I really appreciate you returning. Now, let's go back in time to 2 weeks after I deflask these plants and I can show you how they've been doing. Okay, so it's been just over two weeks since I originally deflasked my TC plants, and I figured it's a good time to check up on them. They've just been in my cabinet here the whole time. I've not touched them. I've not looked at them or anything. I'm just letting them do their own thing. You can see how much condensation is on these vessels, which is good. We want there to be condensation. I actually didn't even need to add in more moisture. There is still a tiny bit of water at the bottom there, which is good. And yes, I definitely could have done this check sooner. I probably could have done it after the first week, but I don't know. I'm I'm just a little bit cautious and like I prefer to go slow during these processes than try and rush it. But I could have looked at these a week ago and seen how they were doing and made these changes then. So, first off, we have the Alicasia Black Velvet Elbow. And some of y'all are saying that this guy might turn pink later on. And maybe it will. Um, I'm hoping it doesn't. If it does, I will sell it. But I really like it really doesn't look like it could possibly turn pink. It is so white in there. So, I don't know. The Alicasia Venom again. So much condensation on there. Looking good in there. The leaves have like perked up really nicely. They're nice and firm.

[00:02:24]They're not having any sort of like rotting issues. I would have come at you way earlier if I was having any sort of issues. But my like gut instinct is if things are fine, leave it for a little bit longer and it should be okay. Things are going well in here. The temptation is real to pull them out and look at the roots. Do not do that. Don't do it. Um I I know I'm impatient and I want to see what's going on with the roots, but you should not do that. You should just be patient. And as long as the top is still looking okay, don't stress and let them do their thing. And then lastly, the Bulbasaur. Again, nice and condensationy.

[00:03:08]looking really really good in there. I haven't seen any sort of roots on I mean the only roots I see on the sides are the ones that kind of were on the sides to begin with. So I don't see any new roots coming in yet. But that is completely normal, completely fine. It has only been 2 weeks for these and so they are just adjusting. They're small plants. They're not getting like loads and loads of energy through big leaves or anything like that. So it does just take a while. They are all seeming to be in a good spot. So my plan for these today and I guess for the next week is to for about an hour a day leave the lid off a crack. So about that much but inside of the cabinet. So right now my cabinet is 69% humidity. And if I pop these in here just cracked open, it allows for some of the moisture to come out without too much of it, without like them going into like a really drastic humidity drop. And that's the goal. You don't want to be dropping the humidity too much too quickly because that's where you could experience some issues with them. So, I am just going to leave them cracked.

[00:04:28]open for an hour. Just 1 hour. Um, just to slowly let some air flow in. This would definitely be easier if you had some of those lids with the like vents on them. Yes, it would make it a lot easier of a process. I don't have those.

[00:04:46]I just have fully domed sealed off lids.

[00:04:49]I could like cut a small hole in them.

[00:04:51]That's another option. I could slowly increase the size of a hole. If you have these in a plastic bag, which would work as well, you could just slowly open the bag a little bit more and more each day um and like start off with an hour and then like 2 hours and then carrying on.

[00:05:08]So, they're all in there now with the lids a jar and that's how they're going to stay for the next hour and then I will close them back up. Just going to set a timer now on my watch for 1 hour.

[00:05:23]And once that's up, going to close them up and we can repeat this process every day for the next week. Okay. Hi. It's been about 4 weeks now since I originally got my tissue cultures and I thought I would give you an update. So, last I spoke to you, it was at the 2 week mark, and I had just started opening up the containers once a day for about an hour. And I did that for about a week. And now I'm opening up the containers for like a few hours kind of whenever I think about it. But I wanted to show you how they are looking in here so far because we do have updates on some stuff. one. We're starting to get some roots in there. This is the Monstera Bulbasaur, and that's a beautiful root in there. It also looks like it's starting to put out some new growth, which is amazing. That is a very, very good sign for this one. That means it's happy. It's currently taking all of my power not to pull it out and look at the roots, but I don't think I need to. I am, however, going to be putting these back into the cabinet with the lids off because we've gotten to that point in this process where the lids don't need to be on anymore. You can see that even though the lid's been off for a couple hours, there's still condensation on these little jars. It's fine. They'll be okay. My cabinet is um my hydrometer's dead. It's normally like 65 to 80% humidity and so I think we are fine at this point to just take the lids off with the Alicasia Black Velvet Elbow. We have some new growth on it which is super exciting. Look at the tiny little new leaf in there.

[00:07:17]So good. I've had a look at this one for roots and I haven't seen any.

[00:07:24]But that doesn't really surprise me.

[00:07:26]allocator roots are quite small in themselves. So, the fact that it's putting out new growth is good. I am probably going to have to cut off this leaf here on the side because it looks like it is going a little bit yellowy. I don't think I quite need to do it yet, but I'm just going to keep an eye on that for a little bit, especially now that I'm taking the lids off of these.

[00:07:49]And then with the venom, it also looks like we are getting some new growth in there. And I have noticed that tiny little thing there. It does not look like much, but that is absolutely a root growing in that wasn't there before. It's got little hairs on it, which is great. You can see the old roots in the side of the cup, but I think these ones are probably dying off.

[00:08:18]They don't look necessarily healthy, but this one down here really does look healthy. I'm really not worried about it. It looks new and juicy. So, that's really good. All three of these are doing fantastic, which is the best thing. One thing to note now, though, that I am taking the lid off of these is that I will need to be much more on top of making sure they stay watered. they will dry out a whole lot faster when the moisture isn't trapped inside of the dome things. So, my plan is to keep an eye on these pretty much every day for the next week or so just to check on them, make sure they're not drying out completely because we really don't want that. If at 4 weeks your plantlets aren't looking as good as mine, maybe your leaves are wilting, dying off, it might not be putting out new growth or roots. Maybe wait a little bit longer.

[00:09:11]keep going on the sort of letting it air out a little bit every day process. This is the biggest step we are making in that we are leaving the lids off completely. And so if they aren't looking ready, if you're worried in the slightest, just give it a little bit longer. In the past, I've left TC stuff in the like domes for so much longer than 4 weeks, and it hasn't been an issue. And that's just out of me being a little bit lazy. So, if there's any doubt, maybe just give it a little bit more time and it shouldn't be a problem with your plants. About a week later, I noticed that the black velvet leaf was looking like it was ready to come off.

[00:09:46]So, I decided to cut it. So, I disinfected my snips with isopropyl alcohol and went in to cut as low as I possibly safely could. Just be really careful here to only cut off what you need to and remove any of the like leftover leaf. I also noticed that the tip of this one was looking a bit funky, so I decided to cut that off as well.

[00:10:06]looking much better, but a bit dehydrated. So, I gave all three of them a little top up with some more distilled water. I'm still using plain distilled water at this point, not adding any fertilizer or anything to it, just to make sure it stays sterile for the time being. Now, here we are just over 8 weeks later, and y'all, for the most part, they're doing so freaking well.

[00:10:30]These two specifically, I'm obsessed with. And we can talk about those a little bit more in a second. The one that's not doing as well is the black velvet elbow. To be honest, I have to water these all. They are quite dehydrated. But I ended up cutting off that big leaf that was on this one because it died off and it has since grown another. So, like we're on the mend with it, but it's definitely not like it's definitely not as far advanced as the other ones in this. I think potentially some of that could be dehydration. I am just going to go in here with some water. This is still distilled water, by the way. Get it back hydrated again. And honestly with this one, I'm tempted to put the lid back on just for a little while because I don't see any roots in this at all. Not even like a sign of them like I do on the other ones. And so I'm not nervous about it. I don't think it's dying. But I think this one might just need a little bit more time than the other ones. And giving it more humidity, putting the dome back on the top could help it sort of recover.

[00:11:46]slashroot a little bit better because it's not been doing its best. The other ones, the Alicasia Venom, holy cow, look at this leaf. It is so much more venomy.

[00:11:59]It's like already getting that classic Venom shape and it is looking a little bit more silver than the previous ones.

[00:12:05]So, that is super exciting. And as far as I know, this one has rooted a little bit more. Again, I let them get a little bit dry. That is my bad. But I think they'll be okay. Um, I am going to be potting this one up into semihydro today, which is very exciting. And then probably the showstopper of this one, the Monstera Bulbasaur.

[00:12:29]Look at this new leaf it has put out.

[00:12:33]How exciting is that? It is a little bit warped, but I think that is to do with the variegation on it. It is a bit of a muscled variegation. And to be honest, I was a little bit worried that this wouldn't be a very very high variegated plant. When I originally got it, the main leaf on it was not incredibly highly variegated. So, I was like, bit of a bummer if I get a low variegated one, but like it's fine. But after this last leap, I am feeling a little bit better about it and I'm much more confident that I can get it to produce higher variegation going forward. Given variegation is not like the end all beall for me. I don't mind if it's a low variegated one. But this one has also given me loads of roots. This is the one that has rooted the most for me that I've seen in here. I'm very, very proud of this one's roots. And so this one is also going to be potted up into semihydro today. I decided on semihydro for this one. I feel like it'll be a good option for it. I could probably put it into soil. Absolutely. But I have my tie in semihydro and it's really liked that. And the more plants I have in semihydro the better. So I think semihydro is the answer for both of these ones. Obviously the allocasia because I don't put my allocations in anything but semihydro.

[00:13:59]But let's go in and we can have a closer look at the roots on these guys because I'm hoping that they are quite nice. Um, let me zoom you in. Here we go. I've just got a little jar that I can pour the flu and perlite into for now.

[00:14:22]Oh my goodness, look at that root system. Those are looking so good. I am so pleased with that.

[00:14:33]It's looking very, very happy in there.

[00:14:36]Everything in here is looking happy and healthy and perfectly fine. I do think, however, I am going to cut off this leaf. It is starting to look a little bit more on the yellow side. And so, I have my little snips here.

[00:14:56]And of course, I'm going to go through and spray them with isopropyl.

[00:15:04]It's always good to sanitize your equipment before you use it, even outside of tissue culture. But for tissue culture things specifically, it is, I'd say, much more important because originally they're coming from a sterile environment. And in general, baby plants are a bit more fragile than adult plants. And so it's better to be safe than sorry on them. So sanitizing your equipment is a good idea. So I have just removed that bottom leaf there. Oh my goodness. I cannot believe how good those roots are. Like I was hoping they'd be good, but I couldn't really see any from the outside. They're great.

[00:15:46]And like I said, we're going in with semihydro on these ones. And I have these small selfwatering pots with a microfiber wick. I use microfiber because the cotton cord that these come with ends up rotting.

[00:16:01]And so I find that to be a better solution.

[00:16:05]And I'm just going to fill this up a little bit. Not too much.

[00:16:12]Not too much because I don't want to have any of these roots uncovered when I pot it in.

[00:16:22]Which way? Let's go that way. And this is really easy. Now, it's just like you are potting any other plant or like potting an alicasia from corns. You just want to make sure that all of the roots are covered and nothing is too uh nothing is sticking out.

[00:16:41]Shaking and tapping is my preferred method of like trying to get the substrate into there as much as possible. And after you do, you're probably gonna have to add a little bit more back in because it gets more substrate down into the root area. But oh my goodness, potted up. I love that. I am going to keep the little tag in here because it's got the date that I originally got the plant. And so for the sake of me remembering timelines, it is useful to have and as like a label. But now that it's starting to grow proper venomy, I kind of don't need that. But let's now do the Bulbasaur. This one I know the roots are fantastic on.

[00:17:27]Let's pull you out.

[00:17:42]This one's sticking to the roots a little bit more of the flu. That's okay.

[00:17:47]I do just want to kind of get it off a little bit. And so I'm just gently going to sort of flick it off. It's only because the roots on Monas are super duper like hairy fuzzy and all of those little hairs are sticking into the substrate so it clings on to a whole heck of a lot more. They're not like stuck on for sure. And if I were just popping this into soil, I wouldn't be as worried about it.

[00:18:18]And not that I'm worried about it putting it into semihydro, but when I put things into semihydro, I like the roots to be kind of as clean as possible. And so getting as much off of as I can is good because you don't want to provide anything in there that's going to go like sludgy and encourage rot. Not that fluil would I don't think because it's I don't think it's organic an organic substrate. Let me know if I'm wrong because I very well could be. I am tempted to physically rinse these roots because a lot of the like flu dust is kind of sticking to it and so giving them a rinse wouldn't be the worst thing.

[00:19:06]They're rinsed off now and you can see they're looking a little bit cleaner. I didn't want to like scrub them by any means because that could harm the roots, but just getting as much of the like dust and debris off as possible is like good and important. So happy with where they are here.

[00:19:31]The roots are so nice on this. I'm so pleased. And also, if I didn't mention this yet, so far, these have only had distilled water. And in theory, I probably could have gone in at this point already with normal water, but I have the I have the distilled water. I kind of may as well use it. I also use it for my pings. And so having this bottle like it's just there. But I obviously just rinsed this in normal water. And now that they're in normal substrate, I am going to treat them as normal and water them with just normal water. And to be honest, I didn't need to leave these as long as I did. I really didn't. But I think I was hoping that this one would get a little bit further.

[00:20:22]I suppose I could. Do I pull it out?

[00:20:28]It's a risk, but I feel like it'd probably be worth the risk just so I can have a really good idea of the root situation.

[00:20:38]Yeah, why not? I know I just watered it, but okay. Okay, it does have some roots.

[00:20:45]It is not rootless in there, which is good, but I don't think it's ready for life outside of the flu quite yet.

[00:20:57]I probably should have watered it after I checked, but you know, hindsight's 2020. I didn't know I was going to be pulling it out. Yeah, I'm just going to leave this one for the time being. I don't think it is ready to graduate just yet. So, I feel like we're in a really good place now. I'm really excited that these have graduated and I can kind of start treating them like normal plants from this point. And I probably won't fertilize with the first water with these. I don't know why. Maybe it's just superstition, but whenever I put something straight into a new substrate or straight repot it, I don't like to fertilize immediately off the bat. So, I will just fill these up with normal tap water and make sure that they are staying hydrated. But now that they're in these selfwatering pots, they're going to stay hydrated quite a lot longer and I can more easily see through these little windows whether or not the water level is high enough. I am just going to put these back on the same shelf they were on in the cabinet since I originally put them in there. I have changed the grow light out. I did a whole cabinet refresh. I think that was my last video. So, go check that out if you haven't already if you want to see me refresh the whole cabinet. And so now they're under a plant spectrum 16 grow light. It is just a little bit brighter than the birina that they were under before and I prefer the light quality.

[00:22:15]It's not a huge difference, but I thought I would let you know because I am informing you on everything that's happening with these little guys. There we go. That is how my tissue cultures are doing 8 weeks on. If you are following along and would like an update in another amount of time, pop the little sprout emoji down below in the comments so I can update you again in the future on these. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up down below and leave a comment on other house planty things you'd like me to talk about in the future and subscribe for more. I hope you're having a fantastic day and I will see you in the next one.

[00:22:47]Don't forget to keep growing. Bye.