Services
Tissue Culture & Micropropagation
Commercial micropropagation for Australian agriculture and conservation. Disease-free, genetically consistent plants produced at scale in our Canberra laboratory.
What is tissue culture?
Plant tissue culture, also known as micropropagation or in vitro propagation, is the laboratory cultivation of plant cells, tissues, or organs under sterile conditions. Small tissue samples—often just a few millimetres—are placed on nutrient media where they develop into complete plants.
This technique produces large quantities of genetically identical plants with consistent quality. Because cultures are maintained in sterile environments, the resulting plants are free from viruses, bacteria, and fungal pathogens that accumulate in conventionally propagated stock over successive generations.
Research organisations including AgriFutures Australia recognise tissue culture as essential infrastructure for emerging horticultural industries, enabling rapid multiplication of elite varieties and clean planting material programs.
Advantages
Why choose tissue culture?
Tissue culture offers advantages that conventional propagation methods cannot match, particularly for high-value crops and conservation programs.
Disease-free
Plants free from viruses, bacteria, and fungal pathogens that reduce yields.
Genetic consistency
Every plant identical to the mother plant for uniform performance.
Rapid multiplication
Thousands of plants from a single source in a fraction of the time.
Year-round production
Laboratory conditions allow propagation independent of seasons.
Space efficient
Compact cultures require minimal space compared to traditional nurseries.
Conservation value
Propagation of species difficult or impossible to propagate otherwise.
Applications
How we can help
Commercial production
Clean planting material for berry growers, banana producers, ginger farms, and horticultural industries where disease-free stock is essential for productivity.
Conservation programs
Propagation of rare and endangered species, supporting ex situ conservation and habitat restoration projects across Australia.
Variety development
Rapid multiplication of new varieties and maintenance of clean mother stock for plant breeders and research programs.
Research support
Propagation of experimental material and custom protocol development for research institutions and industry bodies.
Process
From laboratory to landscape
Our tissue culture process follows established scientific protocols adapted for each species.
Initiation
Selected plant material is surface-sterilised and established on nutrient media under sterile conditions.
Multiplication
Cultures are subcultured repeatedly to produce large numbers of identical plantlets.
Rooting
Shoots are transferred to rooting media to develop root systems before leaving the laboratory.
Acclimatisation
Plants are gradually hardened off to ambient conditions, ready for delivery or planting.
Discuss your propagation needs
Contact us to discuss your project requirements. We work with projects of all scales, from research trials to commercial production runs.