plant tissue cultures

I love young people and and the fantastic things that they do. Their whole 'it's our world and we'll have our way with it' attitude is fantastic. I notice that they noticed they have only to step it up a notch and BAM they outdo settled competition.

I notice when I call the local pizza place that I like so well that they always underpromise and over deliver. It's their policy. They'll have no, "you said it would be twenty minutes" type disappointments. So instead they say it will be a half hour then show up in ten minutes. And they're not the only ones who do that.

You wouldn't believe the young men who make deliveries around here. They blow my mind. They carry more things than I ever thought of carrying. They're fast and strong and reliable. They're sensible kids. They're hustling.

Who ever thought you could buy plant clones from sources so remote it's impossible. Just thinking about it, I'm humbled. All the tracking emails told me to expect shipment next Tuesday, and here half the shipment showed up today.

I wasn't ready for it.

I've been slumming it, alright?

I think this is half of it. And what a surprise. Every step of the process was handled excellently.

Meanwhile, the old timers, I gave up on them. I couldn't get anywhere with them. Four phone calls and I was still at square one. I told them that. They seemed responsive. But they never followed up on anything. Their website is not helpful. It has outdated information. It says, "everything on sale" and simultaneously "sold out" on everything. But I can order whatever I want. Just tell them. How do I do that? Give them the product code. From where? From their partial out of date website. They don't have the things that they show, but they do have things not shown. They'll send me the information but it never appears. And I'm made to feel like I'm bothering them. And still not getting anywhere.

Oh, the Florida hurricane. Excuses excuses.

Kidding. I have no idea what their problem is.

So I paid twice as much through the brilliant youngsters who say what they do and do what they say better than they said it. And the outrageous shipping expense is built into the cost so it works out close to the same anyway.

I hate those YouTube unpacking videos. People set up a camera while they unbox something they bought. See my new toy? This is what you get when you buy this. And this is how the whole thing comes. Then it's ten minutes of a guy opening a box.

I hate those mices to pieces!

Just like mine.

Check out this excellent thoughtful packaging.

It's perfect. 

Until this moment every single plant shipment from oldsters who should know better was mishandled in one way or another. I was predicting mishaps and mishandling of all forms at every stage, such as already experienced repeatedly, and I was wrong about all of it. 

See, this whole experiment comes from snails.

Snails arrive on aquarium plants that you buy. It's impossible for suppliers to keep them out of their water. One snail egg leads to snail infestation. And those little things really get around. They're not so slow as you think. They don't rely on their own pace. They detach and float freely, they're carried away by water movement. They go from one side of the tank to other just by letting the power heads push them. They can go up or sink down through the water column with the greatest of ease. They dig down into the substrate to hide from you. They can cover the sides of the tank by night and disappear into the gravel by day. And they put their little egg patches on everything. One snail equals ten thousand snails in just a few months. 

They devour the eggs strewn by the neon tetras. 

I could have self-replicating tetras were it not for the snails. The eggs only have to endure for 24 hours. But they don't have a chance with snails in the tank. The eggs are like sirens with flashing lights announcing caviar to the snails. 

I see the tetras mating. They're fun to watch playing. At first it looks like they're having a territorial dispute but closer examination shows they're actually having an orgy. Every morning. They're the cutest little things. They go into the plants and you can actually see the female strewing eggs all through them with a male following closely splooging all over the place. They're outrageous. Then the snails move right in for breakfast. 

So, now there is new virgin gravel, a type good for plants. And now there are plant clones started in gel from a microscopic bit. 

That's the experiment. Having a ton of plants but skipping mature plants that come with snails. 

I think this is half of the plant species that I ordered. When I opened the box I expected 4 but there turned out to be 8. 

The following page has a GIF that is an unwieldy size. We don't like them to be this big. I was unwilling to optimize the daylights out of it. The GIF shows the 7 species of aquatic plants and shows their Latin names. The GIF is a miniature plant tutorial. This is another thing that I like about these kids, they just jump right on these Latin names without complaining. They understand it's how the various species are kept straight, and they rattle off these bizarre names like they're real words and use them like regular conversation, being all scientific and smart and specific. The GIF provides mnemonic devices and photos of mature plants. So you can go into any supplier or converse with other hobbyists and they'll be all, what, what, are you one of us? Don't even tell me you're actually speaking our precise and exclusive language. Wow, for an old dude, you're really hip. Unfortunately, the GIF is 1.6 M :-(