Automation of plant tissue culture propagation methods will result in immediate savings to commercial tissue culture labs across the country and will provide for vegetative propagation of many additional crops. The project will focus on strategies for biological configurations and culture vessel concepts for maximum mechanical interactive potential. In addition, analyses of market trends and pricing tolerances will be used to determine a cost-per-unit goals and equipment options to meet those goals. Since the objective is to reduce costs of tissue culture transplants, only cost-effective equipment options will be evaluated. Equipment will be evaluated on the basis of costs per handling, volume capacities, quality of end products, tissue separation mechanisms, sterility maintenance options and flexibility or applicability to other crop species. The biological configurations currently in use will be analyzed from the standpoint of accessibility and uniformity, costs and potential modification, biologically, to enhance mechanical potential.
