Orchid Culture Media Formulations

Orchid tissue culture has its own unique requirements. Below is formulation information for a number of media that are used to successfully culture Orchidaceae.

K4003 - Knudson C modified orchid medium
P0931 - Phytamax orchid maintenance medium without charcoal
P1056 - Phytamax orchid medium with charcoal and banana powder
P6668 - Phytamax orchid maintenance medium
P6793 - Phytamax orchid multiplication medium
M5524 - Murashige and Skoog basal salt mixture (MS)

Component (mg/L)	K4003	P0931	P1056	P6668	P6793	M5524*
Aluminum chloride • 6H2O
Ammonium nitrate		825.0	825.0	825.0	825.0	1650.0
Ammonium phosphate monobasic
Ammonium sulfate	500.0
Boric acid	0.056	3.1	3.1	3.1	3.1	6.2
Calcium chloride anhydrous		166.0	166.0	166.0	166.0	332.2
Calcium nitrate	694.4
Calcium phosphate tribasic
Cobalt chloride • 6H2O		0.0125	0.0125	0.0125	0.0125	0.025
Cupric sulfate • 5H2O	0.0624	0.0125	0.0125	0.0125	0.0125	0.025
Na2-EDTA		37.24	37.24	37.24	37.24	37.26
ZnNa2-EDTA
Ferric chloride • 6H2O
Ferric citrate
Ferric sulfate
Ferric tartrate • 2H2O
Ferrous sulfate • 7H2O	25.0	27.85	27.85	27.85	27.85	27.8
Magnesium sulfate	122.125	90.35	90.35	90.35	90.35	180.7
Manganese chloride • 4H2O
Manganese sulfate • H2O	5.682	8.45	8.45	8.45	8.45	16.9
Molybdenum trioxide	0.016
Molybdic acid (sodium salt) • 2H2O		0.125	0.125	0.125	0.125	0.25
Nickel chloride • 6H2O
Nickel sulfate • 6H2O
Potassium chloride
Potassium iodide		0.415	0.415	0.415	0.415	0.83
Potassium nitrate		950.0	950.0	950.0	950.0	1900.0
Potassium phosphate monobasic	250.0	85.0	85.0	85.0	85.0	170.0
Potassium sulfate
Sodium nitrate
Sodium phosphate monobasic
Sodium sulfate
Zinc nitrate • 6H2O
Zinc sulfate • 7H2O	0.331	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.3	8.6

Organics (mg/L)	K4003	P0931	P1056	P6668	P6793	M5524*
Activated charcoal			2000.0	2000.0
Adenine hemisulfate
Agar
Banana powder (50% malto-dextrin)			30,000
6-Benzylaminopurine (BA)					2.0
D-Biotin
6gamma-gamma- Dimethylallylaminopurine
Glycine (free base)
Indole-3-acetic acid
Indole-3-butyric acid
Kinetin
MES (free acid)		1000.0	1000.0	1000.0	1000.0
myo-Inositol		100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
alpha-Naphthaleneacetic acid					0.5
Nictotinic acid (free acid)		1.0	1.0	1.0	0.5
Peptone		2000.0	2000.0	2000.0	2000.0
Pyridoxine • HCl		1.0	1.0	1.0	0.5
Sucrose	20,000	20,000	20,000	20,000	20,000
Thiamine • HCl		10.0	10.0	10.0	1.0

	K4003	P0931	P1056	P6668	P6793	M5524*
Grams of powder to prepare 1 L	21.6	25.3	57.3	27.3	25.3	4.3
pH ± 0.5 at room temperature	4.7	5.0	5.2	5.4	5.0	3.9

*Composition for M5524, Murashige and Skoog Basal Salt Mixture, listed for purposes of comparison only.