History of the African Violet:

The African Violet is a very common houseplant. African Violets, are also known as, Saintpaulia Ionantha. The African Violet was founded in 1892 in Northeast Tanga and German East Africa. The man who found the plants was named, Saint Paul. Once Saint Paul found them, he gave some to his father who lived in Germany. Once people began to see these plants, it quickly became a trend. The African Violet plants stayed in the Europe area for about two years, before eventually making its way over to the United States. There are many different colors of African Violets that can be derived from the original cultivar. The African Violet has a neat construction of the leaves on the outside of the plant and the flowering parts in the middle. The flowering part in the middle is the part that can be changed through a cultivar. The different colored flowers are, red blue, purple, lavender, pink, white, or a combined color. African Violets are easy to maintain but they need the right environment to grow in.  The most important thing with the environment is that the temperature has to be relatively in the 70-80 degree area for the daytime, and has to have high humidity. Another suitable thing about African Violets are that they can handle a lot of shade. This means that the African Violet plants cannot have too much light or else they will not grow as healthy (ag.auburn).

Propagation Methods used for African Violets:

African Violets, just like any other plants, have many ways that they can be propagated. They can be propagated through leaf cuttings, or by tissue culture. Leaf cuttings are a very easy and fast way to propagate plants. It is not that expensive to do. The only tricky thing is, is that there has to be good healthy leaves on the plant. This is a good way to prevent the new cuttings from getting disease and bacteria. What the grower does for a leaf cutting is that you just have to take a cutting from the bottom of the petiole. They need to make sure that they have a good leaf and stem. Then all they do is put it in a good media and keep it watered, and shaded. Tissue culture was not so popular a while ago, but today is getting more popular. Tissue culture is a very tedious way to grow African Violets but it is a very great way to grow them (Ag.Auburn).

 How To Propagate African Violets using Tissue Culture in a Lab: 

1. Preparation:

1.)  Preparation before the Cutting of Leaf: Tissue culture is a very specific type of propagation. Everything has to go perfectly right to be able to grow a good African Violet. There are a few things they need to have ready before the cutting takes place. Out of the room that you are doing the actual tissue culture you need to have a few things. You need to get a container filled with soapy water. This will be one of the first steps you take after you cut the leaf off. The next thing you need to have ready is the solution that has 10% Clorox in it.

 2.)  Preparation for the Tissue Culture Lab Room: There are many precaution steps that need to be taken into consideration before you can bring the plants into the room. Make sure that you have the Laminar flow hoods on. What these hoods do is they protect your working area from being contaminated. The bad air goes into these hoods and is protected by clean air. Also, you need to make sure that all your utensils are ready to be used. There are many ways that you can sterilize the tools. One way is to put them through an autoclave which is probably the easiest way to do it. What happens in an autoclave is the temperature is so hot that it heats the tools up so that all the tools have no bacteria on them. Make sure that on each lab workbench, that there are sterile petri plates so that you can use those to work. You also need to have three containers that have a decreasing amount of Clorox in them for rinsing after the solution.

 2. Starting the Cutting:  The first thing the grower has to do is to pick a leaf from an already existing African Violet. The key here is to pick one with a long petiole and also a healthy leaf. If the propagator picks a leaf that has a disease or a deficiency then all that will grow in the plate of the tissue culture is bacteria and disease. When taking the cutting use your forceps and your knife to cut the leaf off. Then while still using your forceps, put the leaf in the soapy water container to get the initial dirt and germs off of it. Make sure that you swirl it around so that it can get in all the places it needs to cover. Once you are done with that, then put your cutting into the solution that has the Clorox in it. Only leave it in the Clorox for approximately 15 minutes. Really try to not go over time because it could kill your plant (liv.ac.uk)

 3. Once in the Tissue Culture Lab:  Once you put your leaf into the Clorox solution, you can make your way over to the lab. The first thing that needs to happen is for you to sterilize your workbench. Take the all-purpose cleaner and spray the area. Wipe it off with a paper towel. After you have done this, make sure that your chair is pulled out enough so that when you come back it is not hard to get situated. The next thing to do is to go wash your hands. Make sure that you have all your jewelry off and your sleeves up past your elbows so that it does not get in your way. Wash your hands with soap and water very thoroughly. Once you wash your hands, make sure that you do not touch anything else that is not sterile. Once you sit down at your workbench, you just have to wait for your time to be up for your leaf in the solution.

4. Starting the Tissue Culture:  After your time is up on the solution, you then use your forceps to pull the leaf out. Once you pull out your leaf, there are three more sterilized water dishes that it needs to go through. Each one has a less amount of the Clorox in it. After this, place the leaf in a new petri plate. Once you have placed your African Violet leaf in the petri plate, then you have to take your knife and your forceps and cut the petiole into 3 different parts. When doing this, make sure you cut the clear part off the bottom of the petiole. This piece is dead from the Clorox solution. Cut your petiole pieces into pieces about 1 cm big. Make sure each petiole piece is nice and green. Then cut the leaf part into 3 different pieces. These pieces need to be about 1.5 cm by 1.5 cm big. When cutting the leaf pieces, make sure that your pieces are healthy.

5. Media for the Tissue Culture: There are many different types of media that you can use to do this but the two of the most common ones are BA and NAA. There are two different types of media. Make sure the petri plates are about 30 ml big. Then you use “Murashige & Skoog basal medium” with vitamins in it. For the BA you would use Benzuladenine. For the NAA you would use Napthalene acetic acid. Each of the NAA and BA get the MS formula. When the media is all combined together, you put it in the autoclave for 15 minutes and then pour it into the petri plates. ( Lab 7 of Horticulture 202 Plant Propagation Media).

6. Placing cuttings into media and into Incubator: After you have your cuttings cut, you then place them into the media. When opening the petri plate up, make sure you open up towards the back of the hood that way there is less chance of bacteria getting into it. Place 3 leaf parts and 3 petiole parts into the media. Make sure African Violet parts are touching the media. After you have the plant in the petri plate, close the plate. Take a piece of parafilm and close the container. Then you place it in the incubator to start the tissue culture growth. Make sure you label and put your name on the petri plate (Lab 7). During this time period you need to check to make sure that your explants do not have bacteria on them, or in the media somewhere. According to the Plant Propagation book, it states that, “some internal bacteria can be very persistent and hard to eliminate.” (Plant Propagation, p.682)

7. After the Incubator: After the plant has grown in the incubator, and you see shoots and roots then you can transfer the plant to only a little soil, or none. Then as time goes on slowly give it soil, light, and lower the humidity (Biotech).

– Methods practiced during a lab session like the one Horticulture 202 did in Lab Week 7.

 Conclusion: African Violets are such a great plant to have as a houseplant. There are different ways to propagate this plant, by a leaf cutting, or by tissue culture. Tissue culture is becoming more and more popular each and every year. African Violets need to be in a greenhouse at very warm temperatures and need shaded. This common houseplant is becoming more and more popular as the years go on.

Work Cited:

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/hort/landscape/African_Violets.htm

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~sd21/tisscult/case_study_3.htm

http://www.biotech.iastate.edu/publications/lab_protocols/AV_Micropropagation.html

Plant Propagation Principles and Practices – Hudson T. Hartmann, Dale E. Kester, Fred T. Davies, Jr, Robert L. Geneve. 2002

Pictures are ones I have taken.

By: Erica DeVinney

Horticulture 202