Athena Tissue Culture Kit – For Plant Propagation

A complete tissue culture lab that fits on a bench

The Athena Tissue Culture Kit (Athena call it the Culture Kit) puts everything needed for plant tissue culture into two portable units: a flow hood with a built-in toolbox, and a purpose-built autoclave. Small, clean nodes taken from healthy mother plants are sterilised and set on Athena's pre-mixed Roots and Shoots culture media in small vessels, so a whole genetic library can be kept on a shelf instead of as rows of full-size mother plants. The tools and media in the box make 120 culture vessels, refills are available, and Athena's step-by-step Tissue Culture Procedure is printed inside the toolbox lid.

What's Included

• Flow Hood with integrated toolbox and the Tissue Culture Procedure in the lid
• Autoclave with one-touch sterilising
• Athena Roots Culture Media and Athena Shoots Culture Media – one box of each
• Culture Vessels ×6 and Utility Vessels with lids ×3, plus a Mixing Vessel
• Chemical Bottles ×2 and a Spray Bottle
• Forceps, a Scalpel Handle and 50 Scalpel Blades
• 3 ml Pipettes ×3, an Alcohol Burner, a Working Surface and 30 Alcohol Swabs

Key Benefits

• Preserve a genetic library – Athena rate the system for up to 1,000 cultivars kept as cultures rather than mother plants
• Clean, active-airflow work zone – 2.58 cubic ft of working space with an average face velocity over 0.5 m/s
• Two-stage filtration – a G3 pre-filter and a True HEPA H13 filter clean the air across the work zone
• One-touch autoclave – an 8-litre chamber sterilises a full batch of vessels, media and tools with no settings to configure
• Just-add-water media – the Roots and Shoots formulas contain everything the cultures need, with no measuring
• Procedure in the lid – full start-to-finish instructions written for any experience level

Mother Plants, Space and Carry-Over Infection

Keeping every variety alive as a mother plant costs floor space, light, feed and time, and each mother passes on whatever it has picked up – pests, mould, viruses and viroids that weaken plant health, slow growth and spread through every batch of cuttings. Tissue culture restarts a plant from a tiny, clean piece of growing tissue in a sterile vessel. Athena's procedure is designed to reinvigorate older lines and clean up plant material so it can outgrow infections such as hop latent viroid (HLV), and the rooted plantlets that come out of the Roots stage are hardened off into normal propagation with far less risk of carrying problems forward.

How to Use

• Set up: stand the flow hood on a stable bench near a socket, run the airflow and wipe the work zone and tools with alcohol before every session
• Mix the media: add one pack of Roots or Shoots media powder to filtered water in the mixing vessel, agitate, and fill the culture vessels
• Sterilise: run vessels, media and tools through the autoclave, then let them cool inside the work zone
• Take and place explants: cut nodes from a clean, healthy mother, dissect each one with the sterile scalpel and forceps, and place it on Shoots media to multiply and preserve, or Roots media to root
• Store the cultures under a gentle light of 75–125 PPFD at a room temperature of 20–26°C (68–78°F), as Athena's procedure sets out
• Work safely: do all sterile work inside the work zone, wear gloves and a face covering, and follow every step of the procedure in the lid

Frequently Asked Questions

Works Well With

Athena Roots Culture MediaRefill media for the rooting stageAthena Shoots Culture MediaRefill media to multiply and preserveAthena Culture Vessels 25 PackSpare autoclave-safe vesselsAthena Tissue Culture Filter ReplacementReplacement filters for the flow hood