Viewing post #526228 by admmad

You are viewing a single post made by admmad in the thread called Albino Seedlings.
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Dec 15, 2013 2:24 AM CST
Name: Maurice
Grey Highlands, Ontario (Zone 5a)
OK. I have never done this so it is all speculative but it should not be much more difficult than growing daylilies hydroponically (which has been done).
What an albino daylily needs to do is grow in something like hydroponics with the added requirement that sugar is in the water along with the fertilizer.
The gel is not absolutely necessary - rock wool or oasis or the same materials that the hydroponics growers use would do to hold the plant in the solution but prevent it from 'drowning' in it. Or 4 tablespoons of agar (from a health food store) added to 4 cups of the fertilizer-sugar solution and gently boiled with stirring (or microwaved) until the agar is dissolved can be used as a solid medium. While still liquid it would need to be poured into glass containers and then the glass containers sterilized in a pressure cooker. About one inch of medium in each jar.
The stock solution of fertilizer should be made from something like water soluble 10:10:10 or 20:20:20 with micronutrients (with minors or complete) and following the package directions.
The sugar should be added as 3-4 tablespoons per 4 cups of fertilizer solution.
The water used to make the stock fertilizer solution should be distilled.
It might be hepful (to keep down contamination) if the mixed solution was cooked in a pressure cooker to sterilize it (but it is not mandatory I think that some hydroponics growers add a little hydrogen peroxide instead).

The easiest way might be to plant seeds directly into rock wool or oasis and use the liquid solution. All the containers with seeds could then be placed in constant dark. In that way it does not matter whether the seedlings are normal green or albino. Because they are in the dark they will not develop the green pigment properly (or if they do develop it that should only be temporary). The roots should not need to be cut. Once a week (or perhaps every two weeks - how often would need to be experimented with) the old solution would need to be replaced with fresh solution.
Bubbling air through the liquid solution might be useful.
Maurice

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