Companies specialising in tissue culture multiply large numbers of plants in a short space of time by propagating plant parts and plant cells in artificial culture media. This is done in vitro under sterile conditions. Unlike with cuttings, the primary rooting often takes place in vitro too.

Tissue-culture or in-vitro plants are nowadays used by thousands of growers. For some species, such as Lisianthus, orchids, lilies and various perennials, this is the most common form of propagation. A steadily increasing proportion of such plants now make their way to end users in Greenplugs or Aero NT plugs.