UNITIZED, NONSELECTIVE CUTTING OF IN-VITRO WATERMELON

Unitized, nonselective mass cutting of Stage II Citrullus lanatus cv. Charlee (watermelon) plant tissue cultures has been achieved with vari ous configurations and size of wire cutter devices. Time studies revea led that the wire cutters increased the productivity of the cutting fu nction over conventional scalpel and forceps by a factor of 14. Total transfer productivity, including the manual functions of removing tiss ue from an initial culture vessel and filling (sorting and placing cut tissue segments) new vessels, was increased by a factor of 1.8. The s quare grid-type cutting devices yielded from 48 to 59% as many viable bud clusters per culture vessel as hand cutting and from 65 to 95% as much tissue fresh weight. An oriented-cell configuration of wire cutte r actually increased tissue fresh weight about 20% over hand cutting. The simplicity of construction and quality of material of the wire cut ter render it readily autoclavable and highly flexible to function bot h as an aid to small operations and as an element in more sophisticate d mechanical devices for larger operations.