Thanks for the info. I did a quick search on synthetic seeds and it is much as you would expect - encapsulating somatic embryos in alginates, etc. so they can be treated more like seeds. I also learned of a useful concoction used in plant propagation which essentially kills every kingdom except plantae and is autoclavable and reportedly is the best way to do plant tissue culture and preserve seeds. I imagine a little of that would do wonders for the alginate coating on synthetic seeds. On Wed, Jan 7, 2026 at 7:43 PM Lee Poulsen via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > > My news feed just posted a headline for a story about a company that makes fairly inexpensive kits for plant hobbyists to do tissue culture easily and clone their own plants. So of course I had to read it. It looks legitimate and it doesn’t look that expensive. Furthermore, a couple of the founders started out making the do-it-yourself setups with materials bought at Home Depot or whatever, so they give instructions for additional stuff you need to collect yourself to complete your “lab”. It sounds very tempting because I admit that even do-it-yourself setups sounded more complicated than I’ve ever wanted to attempt. > > Anyway, if you’re interested, here’s the news article: > https://wtop.com/dc/2026/… > > Here’s their website: > https://plantcelltechnology.com/ > > And here’s a PDF file that describes how to set up a home hobbyist tissue culture lab (starting with their starter kit): > https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/… > > They also sell something called a “Synthetic Seed Starter Kit”. There is not a lot of detail given, but this is the first I’ve heard of “synthetic seed”. Does anyone know what that is and what it is good for or used for? > > --Lee Poulsen > San Gabriel Valley, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a > Latitude 34°N, Altitude 340 ft/100 m > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > PBS Forum https://… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…