How to Grow Tamarillo From Tissue Culture

Cover the openings of a beaker with aluminum foil, and place into the oven on a metal tray. Set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and leave the beaker in the oven for two to three hours. (If you have access to a lab, place it in an autoclave and sterilize at 250 F for 15 minutes.)

Prepare a 70 percent ethyl alcohol solution by pouring 0.7 liter of (100 percent) ethyl alcohol into a graduated cylinder and adding deionized water to the 1-liter mark. Transfer the 70 percent ethyl alcohol solution to a spray bottle, and wipe down the walls around your work area with a paper towel. Put on rubber gloves, and swab the surfaces of the petri dish with the solution and a sterile swab. Pour the seeds into the petri dish, and then pour sodium hypochlorite to the top of the petri dish. Gently swirl the petri dish for 15 minutes.

Fill the sterilized beaker with deionized water, and decant the sodium hypochlorite from the seeds, pouring it down the drain or into a glass. Wash the seeds by pouring deionized water from the beaker into the petri dish over the seeds. Swirl seeds for 10 minutes, and then repeat with deionized water a second time.

Decant the water from seeds, and, using a pipette, add 5 to 10 ml of deionized water to the seeds. Decant the water and seeds into the agar plate. Use a marker to label the dish with seed type and date, and incubate for one week at 68 to 73 F. The seeds should have germinated into buds, which you can grow indoors and then transplant outside.