PROUDLY South African - In Vitro aquatic plant

Hi guys and girls

Yes you are reading correctly - In Vitro aquatic plants IE Tissue cultured Aquatic plants - produced in South Africa.

My name is Moolis and a lot of you might know me as the EX-Owner of Pet Stop SA.

About 2 years ago I wanted to get In vitro plants for the shop and all the importers gave me a cold shoulder or ridiculously high prices so true to my nature I started to import them myself and about 18 months ago decided I should look into producing it locally. I spent a lot of time researching this topic in detail to see if it is a viable business and decided I should get a knowledgeable partner but looking for a local partner came to nothing, they either hated my guts or wanted to big a share for their knowledge.

So I decided that I should see if I can do this successfully without a knowledgeable partner and started my training and at night started sterilising aquarium species 1 at a time without a laminar flow hood. This was difficult but absolutely brilliant training for me.

A Year ago I disappeared of the grid and started doing this 50% of my days till I was comfortable in everything I could prepare myself with before earlier this year sold Pet Stop SA to Shawn and went for it full time.

It is now 5 months later and I am 1 month from launching my first product into the market.
Our LAB grew from 1 man to a 5 person team, our healthy cups are close to 20 000 and the first 1000 to 1500 cups will be available in Sept.

Over the next 4 weeks I will tell you more about the 1st PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN invitro aquarium plants that will be launched in Sept.
The following is some of the species we are very successful ATM and the 14 will be out of them or even all of them
Littorella Uniflora
Cryptocoryne Lucens
Cryptocoryne sp....

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Incredible . Congratulations on achieving this !! I will definitely be buying Proudly S.A

 

Awesome. Well done. I will be keeping an eye out for them

 

Amazing! Any indications on prices?

 

It seem like there are currently a lot of different prices in the market and the planed retail price WILL BEAT all of them atm..
Recommended retail will be R100 without forcing the shops to cut into their standard margins

 

R100 is a decent price, especially if it is for the less common stuff. Nice work!

 

That's a pretty grand price! Looking forward to it

 

I understand that R165 is the average and only Pet Stop SA had cups bellow R100 that came from me as part of the trail runs

 

I got some C.Parva about 2 or so months back from Sean for R95 a cup. Was that some of yours Moolis?

 

If it was at Pet Stop SA there is a 50% chance as C parva production was going at that stage. But I was so busy with different experiments at that time that anything was possible.

At that stage we also imported stock to compare their product with ours, thus ensuring our product is the same or better than currently available.

 

These are the main headlines of testing/experimentation. Just To give you an idea of the experimentation up to now.

1. Gel - Different setting gels like agar and their strengths
2. Growth mediums - We tested the different mixes like B-5 etc to ensure we get the best growth
3. Vitamins - Again to see the best growth
4. Hormones - Different types, strengths and mixes. These have a massive effect on not only growth but also callus formation and multiplication - therefore more than 50% of the experimentation was done in this regard.
5. Lighting - as everyone know light is not just light
6. Test & Measure - Measuring our results with the products currently available in the market
7. Packaging - This is the last stage for each plant and end user/distributor. It is only here the human emotions and money/costs have an effect. Up to this point it is clearly science

As you can see/guess this is a ongoing process as the different permutations are nearly endless

 

Well I am very happy with them. There were about 15 - 20 plants spread across 2 tubs and they were very healthy. I can definitely recommend buying in vitro.

 

Just knowing that it is virus and plant infection free plant that is a clone from a pre-selected plant make it worth while

 

Hormones are something I haven't ventured in. I tried Agar cultures with rhizomes and such, orchid fertilizer and DsDs were used as ferts. Some stuff died, some is just sitting there. Not too much to say in that regard.

In absence of a laminar flow hood I just sterilized everything in boiling water or bleach haha

 

Bought the following in vitro plants today just a indication has to how much these things go for. anubias nana paxing R160 anubias nana mini R220
weeping moss R160. crazy prices no i don't think so the paxing gave me 8 nice plantlets and the mini about 6 all in all very happy.

 

I find MS is the most effective in 70% of the species

 

Yes but if a shop ask you more than R100 for my plants (start retailing next week) he is overcharging you
WANT To keep updated what your local Local Aquarium Shop will have available to them? Like https://www.facebook.com/BUCEandAQUATICplants/ and you will know at the same time as the wholesalers are notified

 

May I ask what MS is?

 

Yes thats a very valid question - Murashige and Skoog medium is MS and we mix this into the gel as the growth medium with the ideal micro-elements, macro-elements and vitamin nutrients for the plants. This exclude the carbohydrates and hormones need by the plants.

Hope I did not bore you with the details

 

@Moolis the gardner is this some of yours thst epic is doing the distribution for?



Later Ferdie