Can I Tissue Culture a Pink Princess Philodendron?

Can I tissue culture Pink Princess Philodendron?

With the huge demand 2020 has brought for the Pink Princess Philodendron, I have been asked many times “can I tissue culture my Pink Princess Philodendron”? 

Not only can you tissue culture the Pink Princess, over 80% of the Pink Princess Philodendrons released to the market over the past 12 years have been from tissue culture! This goes to show that when things are done properly, you would never know your plant is a tissue culture.  

Is a tissue culture Pink Princess of lower quality?

NO! But there is more to it. 

The starting plant material is very important when it comes to tissue culturing a Pink Princess Philodendron. If you start with an almost reverted Pink Princess, you will just be creating copies of the same plant. We are seeing many Pink Princess Philodendrons on the market reverting or being sold as “Burgundy Princess”. This is likely due to the tissue culture lab starting with lower quality Pink Princess plants. Many of these plants are coming from tissue culture labs outside of the US that have different access to starting material sometimes better, sometimes worse.  

Is tissue culture faster than regular propagation?

When you tissue culture a Pink Princess Philodendron not all will carry the same traits. But the good news is that you can generate dozens in the same time it would take to get just ONE from normal propagation methods. Those can then be multiplied month over month resulting in hundreds from very little starting material. There is also no worries about lighting, water, pests or disease when they are growing in vitro making it possible to grow huge amounts of plants in a very small area. 

Want to learn how to tissue culture a pink princess philodendron and other popular houseplants? Check out our hands on classes in our tissue culture lab just outside of Boston Massachusetts!