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Harry_Ba11sach said:
well, growing pot in general is illegal so I'm not sure why you'd be concerned with this method. 

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Koons is referring to breeders producing "artificial seeds", basically a very small clone. What he's talking about isn't this method though. The breeders don't do it because, in most places, seeds don't have a legal status. It is quite different for clones, which is why there hasn't been an artificial seed market yet, despite the fact that one would be very, very successful, since much sought after, clone-only strains like OG Kush, the Exodus Cheese cut, etc. could be easily sold to everyone.. Distributors aren't willing to take the risk of getting busted with it, although some breeders like Chimera have spent a lot of time working with artificial seeds. This is what he meant when he was referring to the illegality of it; distributors who are relatively safe with selling seeds would no longer be safe if they were selling these, so they won't do it.

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18 Dec 2001
Singapore Polytechnic School of Chemical & Life Sciences


Artificial Plant Seed Production
by Ms Wendy Shu
Lecturer, School of Chemical & Life Sciences



Plant Seeds

What is it?

A plant seed consists of an embryo and its food store (endosperm), surrounded by a seed coat (testa). The seed ensures that the next generation of plants exists.

The embryo

The embryo is made up of one or two cotyledons attached to a central axis. The upper part of the axis contains a plumule at its tip. The plumule grows into the shoot system. The lower part of the axis consists of the hypocotyl and a radicle. The radicle grows into the root system.

The endosperm

The endosperm is the food reserve that the embryo uses during the early stages of germination. Before the embryo is able to produce its own food through photosynthesis, the endosperm provides vital nutrients to the embryo.

The testa

The testa protects the embryo from injury and drying out. It also makes sure that the embryo remains viable before germination. As germination occurs, water is absorbed and the seed coat breaks allowing the radicle to first emerge from the seed.



Artificial Seeds

Concept

Artificial seeds were first introduced in the 1970s as a novel analogue to the plant seeds. The production of artificial seeds is especially useful for plants which do not produce viable seeds. It represents a method to propagate these plants. Artificial seeds are small sized and this provides further advantages in storage, handling, shipping and planting.


What makes an artificial seed?

Artificial seeds can be produced by encapsulating a plant propagule in a matrix which will allow it to grow into a plant. Plant propagules may consist of shoot buds or somatic embryos that have been grown aseptically in tissue culture. In culture, these plant propagules can easily grow into individual plants as we have the capacity to control its growth using chemicals provided in the culture media.

In the production of artificial seeds, an artificial endosperm can be created within the encapsulation matrix. The encapsulation matrix is a hydrogel made of natural extracts from seaweed (agar, carageenan or alginate), plants (arabic or tragacanth), seed gums (guar, locust bean gum or tamarind) or microrganisms (dextran, gellan or xanthan gum.). These compounds will gel when mixed with or dropped into an appropriate electrolyte (copper sulphate, calcium chloride or ammonium chloride). Ionic bonds are formed to produce stable complexes. Useful adjuvants such as nutrients, plant growth regulators, pesticide and fungicide can be supplied to the plant propagule within the encapsulation matrix. In most cases, a second coat covering the artificial endosperm is required to simulate the seed coat..



Advantages of artificial seeds

Artificial seeds have the potential for providing an inexpensive plant delivery system. The process of planting can be easily mechanised and this allows the direct delivery of tissue cultured plant propagules to the field. It also provides rapid bulking up for the production of individual genetically engineered plants.


How are artificial seeds made?



Shoot buds cut from shoot cultures can be used for artificial seed production. They are cut to 2-3mm in size and placed in the encapsulation matrix.



Somatic embryos formed from cultured plant parts are ideal for artificial seed production.



Using a sterile 10ml pipette, the shoot bud / somatic embryo is drawn up with some encapsulation matrix.



The shoot bud or somatic embryo is dropped into the complexation solution and a capsule is formed and allowed to harden. Capsule hardness can be controlled by the concentration of the complexation solution and the complexation time. Size of the capsule is determined by the size of the shoot bud or somatic embryo and the inner diameter of the pipette used.



The capsules or artificial seeds are collected by decanting off the complexation solution and rinsed in water. The artificial seeds should be pliable enough to cushion and protect the embryo, yet allow germination and growth of the shoot bud or somatic embryo. It should be rigid enough to withstand rough handling during manufacture, transportation and planting. For the artificial seeds to remain dormant until planting, a thin layer of water-soluble resin is used to coat the encapsulation matrix.

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