Key Benefits

1. Planting up to 15,000 plants per hour, using Nic-In Systems® and automatic transplanters, replacing up to 30 manual planters.
2. 25-35% more efficient then round containers, both in the growing room and in shipping.
3. More secure shipping with less damage to cultures.
4. Better control of plant quantities as the Nic-In cell system guarantees the quantity of plants.
5. Faster growth in nursery, as there is no transplant shock when using Nic-In Systems®.
6. No need to change laboratory systems and no extra laboratory equipment necessary .

1. Efficiency

The patented Nic-In Systems® has been developed to allow most tissue cultures to be planted in the nursery by automatic transplanters. Our own small nursery has a 7 head transplanter that can plant up to 5000 tissue cultures per hour (depending on which cultures we are transplanting). This same transplanter can easily accommodate 21 planting heads and thus triple the planting speed up to 15,000 cultures per hour. The transplanting efficiency and operation is improved significantly using the Nic-In Systems® specially formulated agar, Nic-In AutoGel®.

2. Space Saving

By replacing our round containers with the Nic-In Systems®, we have been able to increase the amount of plants per container from 34 to 49, even though both containers use the same amount of room in the laboratory. This has improved the efficiency of our growing chambers by 35% and we can now grow an extra 35% more cultures, using the same amount of energy. The same savings apply to our shipping costs, because we can ship 35% more plants in the same boxes.

3. Improved Transport

Extensive shipping trials have been done using Nic-In Systems®. We have simulated rough handling, by shipping tissue cultures in suitcases when travelling. Even on several extended trips, which included stopovers, where the suitcases were loaded and offloaded onto different planes, with trips in and out of taxies, onto hotel trolleys etc. The end result was that the cultures looked like they had been carried by hand all the way., No broken agar, not a single plant dislodged. The Nic-In tray has 2 'arms', that allow the cultures to be shipped upside down, without any chance of the tray becoming dislodged and damaging the cultures.

4. Better Control

The current system of 'random' planting of tissue cultures in a container with agar, makes it difficult to check the quantity in each container. The Nic-In Systems® cell structure ensures that each container has 49 plants.

5. Faster Growth

With Nic-In Systems®, the cultures are transplanted in the nursery with the plug of agar still attached, reducing or eliminating the transplanting shock. The roots can now grow gently out of the agar into the peat, while the plants can still utilize the nutrients in the agar, as the agar slowly 'melts' away into the peat over a period of 5 to 10 days. The faster growth and quality is facilitated by using our beneficial plant inoculum, Nic-In Jungle Juice®.

6. Laboratory Benefits

No additional equipment is needed in the laboratory to use Nic-In Systems®.

The Nic-In Systems® tray and container are autoclave able and can also be irradiated, so they can be used for 'cold pour' or 'hot pour' procedures. The container is designed so that it fits nicely in the operator's hand. The lid is designed to reduce infection due to operator handling. The tray system allows the laboratory operator to solely concentrate on the planting of the cultures, without the distraction of having to count the plants while doing so.