## 3 Results and Discussion
### Costs of P. tomentosa \(\times\) P. fortunei In Vitro Production  
During one hour of work in the multiplication stage, one person is able to cut out and transplant 159.86 nodal explants, whilst 213.2 shoots are obtained during one hour of cutting out and transplanting shoots for rooting results. This might be attributed to the easiness of planting shoots in agar in comparison to nodal explants. Planting nodal explants is problematic because of the big leaves which raise nodes from the medium, and the need for frequent correction. The price of the ingredients necessary for the preparation of 1 L of MS2 medium are detailed in Table 2, as well as the total cost of 1L of MS2 medium, which is $0.88. The cost of 1 L of rooting medium MS4 is $0.879*. The price of one container with the medium is $0.14. The cost of labor for producing it is: $0.2. Growing plants in containers over a period of 4 weeks costs $0.03 whereas the cost of growing a single plant is $0.003*. The cost of rooting is $0.04. The total variable cost of producing a single rooted plant including an economic overhead is $0.084*, where full light conditions were used and $0.082*, where reduced light conditions were used. The reduced light condition reduced the seeding cost by 2%. An increase in the number of plants over the following weeks, and the plantlet cost are detailed in Table 5. After 20 weeks of multiplication and rooting 48,020 plants were obtained using full light conditions with a total variable cost of production of $3173.78. At the same time where 70% reduced light was applied, 414,720 plants were produced with a total variable cost of $26,067.97 (Table 6). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Medium** & **Effect on Explant** & **Rooting Percentage** &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Possibility of Further** \\ **Usage** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline
1/2 MS hormone free & rooting after 2 weeks, \\ (MS4) & healthy long, branched roots \\ \hline
1/2 MS + 1 mg/L IBA & rooting after 2 weeks, short, \\ (MS5) & hard roots. Easy to break \\ \end{tabular} & 100\% & YES \\ \hline Source: Data from Plant Research Laboratories. Source: Photo from Plant Research Laboratories. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Effect of different medium on rooting of _P. tomentosa \(\times\) P. fortunei._ \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Costs in \$ of** & & **70\%** &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Reduced Materials, Reagents and Labor Cost** \\ \end{tabular} \\
**Production of** & **Full Light** & **Reduced** \\
**Container with** **Conditions** & **Conditions** & **Light** & **Light** & **Reduced** \\
**10 Explants** & **Conditions** & **Conditions** & **Conditions** & **Conditions** & **Conditions** \\ \hline
**Materials and** & & & & **by 10\%**, \\
**reagents** & 0.14 & 0.14 & 0.13 & 0.13 & 0.11 & 0.11 \\ \hline Labor & 0.2 & 0.2 & 0.18 & 0.18 & 0.16 & 0.16 \\ \hline Cost of growing & 0.03 & 0.01 & 0.03 & 0.01 & 0.03 & 0.01 \\ \hline Economic & & & & & \\ overhead & 0.07 & 0.07 & 0.07 & 0.06 & 0.06 & 0.06 \\ \hline Total cost of & & & & & \\ container with 10 & 0.44 & 0.42 & 0.41 & 0.38 & 0.36 & 0.34 \\ unrooted plants & & & & & \\ \hline Total cost of & & & & & \\ container with 10 & 0.84 & 0.82 & 0.81 & 0.78 & 0.76 & 0.74 \\ rooted plants & & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Analysis of costs with the two highest costs, materials, reagents and labor, of _in vitro_ production of unrooted _P. tomentosa \(\times\) P. fortunei_ hybrid reduced by 10% and 20%. The production of 10,000 unrooted plants where full light conditions were used requires 16 weeks, while the same number of plants raised in reduced light conditions can be obtained one week earlier at a lower price. [PERSON] [16] has calculated the total variable and fixed costs for production of more than 10,000 plantlets of _Phalanopsis_. According to his calculation, the cost of a plantlet is NT$9.04, which is equivalent to $0.29 (exchange rate as of 17 February 2019).