Pre-treatment of coconut water ?

[myxodex]

I'm getting things together for my third attempt at DIY seed sowing after last year's bust. A few days after reading TyroneGenades query on coconut water I noticed that a local shop that sells these. In the meantime I have been reading as much as I can about the different media and making decisions about what to try. One of the references (see below) on organic supplements suggests that heating the coconut water for 10 mins at 80-100 degrees C and then letting it stand in order for a precipitate to sediment out. This is then filtered out and the water then either added to medium or frozen at -20 degrees C.
I'm curious as to whether any of you seed sower's out there do this ?

The reference I mentioned above is from a chapter in a book by E. F. George (2008) on plant tissue culture. Two chapters from this book are available as PDF's online and I found them interesting. The information in these is technical and not orchid specific. Here are the links in case anyone is interested ... it is the second one that mentions coconut water treatment;

Chapter 3 macro and micro nutrients

http://www.researchgate.net/publica...ue_Culture_Media_I_Macro-_and_Micro-Nutrients

Chapter 4 organic supplements

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.476.3839&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Cheers,
Tim

 

[polyantha]

I just add the coconut water from bottles from a local store to the medium. It is heated in the autoclave too and sediments sink to the bottom of the flask. But this never was a problem. Keep the process of media preparation as simple as possible. That's how I do it: P6668 at half concentration plus 15% coconut water per liter, add agar when it is boiling, wait 3 minutes, fill the flasks and autoclave them. Media preparation never took me more than 10 minutes.
For replate medium I add 40g per liter of green banana and 40ml coconut water.
I usually get very good results.
Hope this helps and wish you the very best with your project. If you need further help please PM, mail or post.

 

[myxodex]

Thank you for your answer. I wasn't going to pre-treat the coconut water, then I read the protocol about the pre-treatment and wondered whether this was standard and no had mentioned it.

I also wondered whether there was any enzymatic activity that destroys active components but it didn't seem likely to be a problem unless it's left sitting around for some time in the air before use.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[eteson]

Filter sterilize it if you want, but the risk of contamination is much higher. My procedure is exacly the same as described by polyantha and I am very happy with my results (I breed only phrags).