Stem Prop....What Does That Mean?
 

When an orchid is advertised as a stem prop, what exactly does that mean?

Is it a kekii, same as a clone, or something else?


Is stem prop preferred over mericlone?


Newbie trying to understand and make intelligent buying decisions.



Thanks!:)

Hello Pete.

In a way a stem prop is like a keiki. But a keiki is naturally occuring. Where as a stem prop is from a spike node that has been chemically treated to form a plant in vitro.

Stem props are perferred over mericlones and command a higher price. Reason being when mericloning hundreds to thousands can be made from a small amount of original tissue by just keep dividing it. With a stem prop only one to a few are made at a time. The benifit is the resulting plant is identical to the orginial. With mericloning, mutations can occur more readily so the resulting plants my not be identical to the plant the tissue came from.

Hey Pete,

Ted's right on the money, but I'll add one point. A "stem prop" is a "mericlone". The "stem" part refers to meristem, not a stem of a plant or flower. We can't propagate orchids by stem or leaf cuttings, we need meristem tissue for orchids. All orchid clones are meristem clones.

"Stem props" will sometimes produce multiple plantlets, but the cloning process involves dividing these plantlets and further multipication. Any medium or product that contains plant growth regulating hormones may cause a mutation. Even keiki paste can cause mutation in the flower spike, the new plant, or even the mother plant.

True.

Partially true.

Let me be specific.

Depending on how you cut the stem for the stem cutting, the meristematic tissue can be on the nodes or the apex (very top) of the stem.

If you obtain meristematic tissue from the nodes they're called adventitious meristems.

If they're obtained from the apex of the stem, they're called apical meristems.

You know how the whole "stem cell research" topic is all the rage right now? Well...it's essiantially similar (not the same, close to but not the same - don't interchange the words "similar" and "same" in this case, they have subtle differences in meaning) in principle as to what we're talking about here.

However...

It is not efficient to produce keikis from stem cuttings on a small or large scale. The most efficient method of large scale production of plants from a stem cutting is to take the meristematic tissue from the stems and use in-vitro methods of cloning them (once you've understood and perfected the method of course :)).

Some orchids can produce protocorm-like-bodies (plb's), from the cuttings of young leaf tips through cloning.

There is information regarding this.

Roots also contain meristematic tissue, and therefore root cuttings from certain kinds of orchids can be used for mericloning as well.

Be careful in reading this statement. Read it carefully, it is true, but can be misread and misunderstood.

Yup!

adventitious meristem
 

so, when I cut up the canes from a Den. kingianum and planted them, the new plants that appeared from the nodes developed from adventitious meristem tissue?

Ken

Yes.

just out of curiosity, are other (non orchid) plants that propogate from stem cuttings using the same type of tissue?

Ken

Yup!

In fact, many of the non-woody stem plants are much easier to micropropagate than orchids (except for cacti and succulents, they're non-woody plants, but they're not easy to tissue culture from what I've been told).

OK heres a couple of stem cuttings I took about 2 1/2 months ago...nothing on them but sulphur on the cut ends...they were not hormonally induced...they were not keikis...just dormant nodes on a flower Phal. flower stem

Did you say phal/
 

Really? I knew you could do it with some types, but I had no idea that phals also could throw out keikis if left on moist sand or other growth medium.

I'm intrigued. You don't do anything else except cut them and sterilize the tips?

:bowing