Acclimating your Tissue Culture
Step 1 - Leave it alone!
Once you receive your plantlet, leave it alone for at minimum of 2 days. This will allow it to acclimate to your environment without causing too much stress.
Step 2 - Deflasking
When removing the plant out of the bag, be careful that you do not damage the plant or roots.
Once the plant is out of the bag, remove as much of the gel as you can by running the plant under warm tap water. the warm water helps remove the gel. Make sure you get in all the spaces and only stop once you are confident that you have removed as much of the gel as possible. You will lose roots in this step, that is normal! The main priority is to remove the gel, since it is what attracts mold buildup.
I will usually leave the plantlet with only 2 or 3 leaves, so if the plantlet comes with more leaves, I will remove the bottom ones. They will usually be buried under the soil, which can potentially be a problem and create root rot.
Step 3 - Potting your Plantlet
Once I feel confident that I have removed the gel, I will put the plantlet in a 2" pot and use a chunky mix of 1/3 Perlite, 1/3 Coco Coir chips and 1/3 Peat Moss.
Make sure to give it a good thorough rinse once the plantlet is potted.
Step 4 - Humidity
For the first 7-14 days you want to make sure you provide the plant with a high humidity environment. We like to drop the plantlet in a plastic cup with a dome lid, which provides the plant with 100% humidity. a zip-lock bag works just as fine as well!
Step 5 - Lighting
Once the plantlet is inside the humidity dome, I will place it under a grow light. I keep the lights on for 12hrs at a time, and make sure that the outside temperature stays above 70 at all times.
Step 6 - Progress!
At this step all you are doing is checking the plantlet. DO NOT OPEN THE CUP! Opening the cup releases the humidity and can cause stress on the plantlet. The only reason you would open the cup is if the soil is dry. A good way to know if the soil is dry is by seeing if there is condensation build up. If the cup shows condensation, then the soil does not need to be watered, but if there is no condensation build up, I will open the lid and give the plant a watering.
After 7-14 days, I remove the lid for 1hr/a day. I will do this for about a week and then fully eliminate the lid.
After this you want to make sure the soil does not dry up! The plant will keep on growing.
And that is all! :)
Hope you enjoy the process!