As a passionate walnutgrower (in Norway) I now want to propogate walnuts not from seeds, but by cuttings or microproprogation. I haven't find any website especially useful. So, are there anyone who can help me or recommend websites or books, especially on micropropogation? There should also be some place to by kitchen-kits for micropropogation? Grateful to any answer!
Commercial walnut cultivars are propagated by grafting. I've never heard of cuttings being used. A kitchen-kit for micropropogation sounds a bit improbable to me - it's the sort of thing that needs a full scale €5,000,000 biology laboratory with good sterilisation techniques, full control of growing conditions, etc, etc, etc.
I believe from what I have read, that cuttings and micropropogation are tomorrows propogation of walnuts. There are much to find on the net, ecpecially about cuttings. BioTech Hobbyist had for sale kitchen-kits once, there should be other too!?
Micro-propagation requires some equipment to be sure, but certainly not 5million. You would need a laminar flow bench, and a climate controlled growing cabinet, an accurate .001g scale, binocular 'scope and perhaps a small autoclave for sterilizing media and tools. Small batches of media and tool sterilizing can be done in a pressure cooker; custom formulated media can be purchased in sealed containers (think foil topped yoghurt). One problem area is chemicals: by the time you have bought minimum quantities you will have spent some thousands of dollars and have a 500 year supply of some of them, but I can't see an alternative if you wish to "tweak" your formulations as the custom formulators also have minimums. We are not running yet, but we are past $20K and probably won't exceed $30K. I think a really small but functional lab could be done for half that not including the building and electrical/water/waste systems. Ralph
