The process begins with seeds selected from improved trees in a forester's tree breeding program. For CellFor, this is a decision made in conjunction with our partners, some of the largest forest products companies in the world.

The seeds are sterilized and placed in a proprietary growth medium that induces embryogenesis, or the growth of embryonic tissue culture. The resulting tissue culture is now a distinct seed Line 

When used in the context of plant propagation, the term refers to a collection of plants produced asexually either from a single plant or part of a plant. They have the exact same genetic make-up.

or variety, and continues to grow as immature somatic embryos. They are genetically identical to the original seed, and small numbers of the embryos are allowed to mature for use in testing.

The rest of the embryogenic tissue cultures are placed in cryogenic storage, where they can be held indefinitely for future use. Once field testing is completed, and elite trees have been identified, fresh cultures can be taken from cryopreservation for use in large scale production.

Once in production, we put the embryos into an ideal environment that allows them to reproduce exponentially in little more than a week. This tissue culture is then transferred to a new maturation media, where the embryos are allowed to mature. Using numerous proprietary technologies CellFor has developed around the maturation step, which is key to the mass production of somatic embryos.

Once the maturation step is complete, the embryos are put through extensive QA/QC methods, and the highest quality Somatic Embryos 

A plant embryo formed in vitro from vegetative (somatic) cells by mitotic division of cells.  CLICK FOR MORE

are desiccated until their Moisture Content 

The amount of water present in an embryo.  CLICK FOR MORE

is comparable to dry mature seed . This is key intellectual property for CellFor. It prevents immediate Germination 

A three-phase process starting with uptake of water by a quiescent dry seed, then elongation of the embryo along its axis, then protuberance of a root or shoot radicle through the seed coat.  CLICK FOR MORE

and allows the embryos to be cold stored until the spring planting season in the forestry nursery.

This allows CellFor to produce seed year round, storing the seed until it is ready to be sown in a partner's bare root or containerized seedling nursery.

When the time is right, we germinate the Mature embryos 

A mature embryo is one which is capable of germination, given the necessary environmental conditions (temperature, light, water, nutrients, etc.).  CLICK FOR MORE

and sow them into proprietary polymerized peat mini-plugs. These mini-plugs are designed around standard horticultural greenhouse systems, and can be sown and grown in standard commercial horticultural greenhouses.

In a few weeks, these mini-plugs are shipped to the forestry nursery, where CellFor has developed proprietary sowing technology that transfers the mini-plug to either bare root nurseries or containerized stock, called a bare root transplanter.

There they are grown to healthy seedlings, eventually to be transferred to field plantings in an intensively managed plantation.

It starts with a seed, and ends with a healthy seedling. But the biggest results are in your profits.