How to kill funghi growing on Murashige and Skoog medium?

[HumbCa]

Hello.
I have some jars with dendrobium small plants growing on Murashige and Skoog (most plants already have tiny leaves and roots), this is the first time I've gotten this far and I was pretty excited.
Unfortunately I did something wrong when repotting the plants to new jars with fresh medium and now they're contaminated; funghi are developing on the repotted jars
I would like to know whether there's something I can add or do to save my plants.
Thanks for your help, and may you have better luck than me.

[Mr.Fakename]

Don't feel too bad, contamination happens to everyone!

If contamination is a recurrent issue for you, it is possible to add anti-contaminants to your media.

The simplest way to solve the problem is to treat the plants with 70% ethanol and put them in new medium again.

[PaphMadMan]

There are anti-fungal compounds that can be incorporated in culture media, or less effectively added to already contaminated flasks as a sterile suspension. It has been way too long since I was involved in this kind of work to remember any specific protocols to recommend. I know Nystatin is still used in this way, and in the good old days we used Benomyl. You need a source of a high purity compound without the fillers and additives of a commercial ready-to-use fungicide treatment. It may be too late for your current problem, but a little research should find protocols and materials to try.

[SouthPark]

Do you mean that you de-flasked and then decided that you want to put them back into closed jars?

A replate, right? That's way ahead of me. I've never done anything like that before. Hope you can find a suitable fungicide that can help save the orchids.

[HumbCa]

Originally Posted by Mr.Fakename

The simplest way to solve the problem is to treat the plants with 70% ethanol and put them in new medium again.

Hey, thanks for the suggestion! 70% ethanol sounds simple enough, however I'll have to ask: How long should I treat the plants with ethanol for?
Maybe just a couple seconds, minutes? Maybe just use a cotton swab and clean them thoroughly?

[Mr.Fakename]

A cotton swab will not be in contact with every part of the plants.

Soaking the seedlings between 10 and 15 seconds and rinsing with distilled water (dunking them into a bowl a few times) should do the trick.

If you're really afraid that contaminants might stay, it's somehow common to apply ethanol, rinse into a 1% sodium hypochlorite solution, and then rinse again in distilled water.

[estación seca]

Everything used in the alcohol dunk and distilled water rinse must be sterilized in a pressure cooker, except the alcohol. And all your tools must be sterilized, too.

[Fairorchids]

If contamination is minor, in clearly defined spots, then:

Take a large magnifying glass, and bring the jar/flask outside into the sun. Use magnifying glass to focus sun rays on the infected spot (through the wall of the jar/bottle). This will burn the infection away.

You will loose any plants within the infected spot, but the rest of the jar/bottle contents should be saved.

[SouthPark]

The techniques have really matured lots these days. Most likely beneficial to really get in there and read up and study the techniques - from start to finish before going through all this (ie. the physical motions) - to minimise chances of or even avoid that sort of problem. This is to avoid wiping out those poor guys and girls in the jar.

Also you mentioned that you did 'something wrong'. It will be beneficial to know what that 'something wrong' is - and to totally avoid it.

Hope you can save them! Keep us posted on the outcome!

[hobibotanik]

Originally Posted by HumbCa

Hello.
I have some jars with dendrobium small plants growing on Murashige and Skoog (most plants already have tiny leaves and roots), this is the first time I've gotten this far and I was pretty excited.
Unfortunately I did something wrong when repotting the plants to new jars with fresh medium and now they're contaminated; funghi are developing on the repotted jars
I would like to know whether there's something I can add or do to save my plants.
Thanks for your help, and may you have better luck than me.

Probably you have got a solution for your problem or lost your culture until today. But let me give an working advice for this kind of oroblems.

if your plant produced leaves and aerial roots even small you can save them by liquid culture. fill some perlites to a jar and pour liquid MS medium without agar and sugar until half of perlite. put your seedlings over perlite and make and ventilation hole at the cap. but cover hole with a medical nonwoven flaster.

Hobibotanik on Instagram: “Phalaenopsis developing on Liquid medium with perlite is quite sucsecful. #phalaenopsis #micropropagation #planttissueculture…”