Tissue culture concepts
Media recipes and additives
Media recipes in xPlant document the formulations used throughout your tissue culture workflow. Attach a recipe to stages and transfers to preserve exactly which medium each culture was grown on.
Why documented recipes matter
Reproducibility
When a culture responds well, you can look up exactly what media it was on and reproduce the conditions for the next batch.
Shared team knowledge
Recipes are visible to all team members. One person formulates a recipe; everyone can reference it without repeating the calculation.
Variant tracking
When you adjust a formulation for a specific species or season, save it as a named variant. The original stays intact for comparison.
Tracing outcomes to media
Attach a recipe to a stage or transfer entry so you can later filter cultures by the media they were grown on — useful for troubleshooting poor multiplication or contamination clusters.
Creating a recipe
Go to Dashboard → Media and select New Recipe. Build your formulation by choosing a base medium and adding each component with its concentration and any relevant notes.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Name | Use a descriptive name, such as MS Half-Strength Rooting Medium |
| Base medium | MS, WPM, B5, Knop, or another basal medium |
| pH | Target pH before autoclaving |
| Agar / gelling agent | Type and concentration of the gelling agent |
| Sucrose | Concentration in g/L |
| Additives | Record each additive with its concentration, such as plant growth regulators (PGRs), vitamins, activated charcoal, or other supplements |
| Preparation notes | Sterilization method, preparation notes, and storage conditions |
| Tags | Optional: species, explant type, stage, or laboratory use |
Additive types
xPlant does not restrict the additives you can record. The categories below are common in tissue culture and can help organise your recipe library with tags.
| Category | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Plant growth regulators | BAP, IBA, IAA, NAA, 2iP, TDZ, kinetin | Record concentration (mg/L or μM) and supplier details when relevant |
| Vitamins and amino acids | Thiamine (B1), nicotinic acid, glycine, myo-inositol | Often included as part of a standard vitamin formulation |
| Carbon sources | Sucrose, glucose, fructose | Record concentration in g/L |
| Gelling agents | Agar, Phytagel, Gelrite, agarose | Record concentration as % or g/L |
| Supplements | Activated charcoal, casein hydrolysate, coconut water | Record concentration and intended purpose |
Attaching a recipe to a stage or transfer
When recording a stage or transfer, you can optionally attach a Media Recipe. Start typing the recipe name to search your library and select it. The recipe is then linked to the record, making it easy to review exactly what media the culture was growing on.
If you change a recipe over time, create a new recipe variant instead of editing the original. This preserves the exact formulation used for earlier stages and transfers, ensuring your culture history remains accurate.