Welcome to the wonderful world of plant tissue culture!!!! ::confetti::
Orchids bleed and their blood is toxic to them. Use activated charcoal in orchid media.
Don't start with random plants. Start with tobacco seeds and surface sterilize them. Sprout them and use the resulting aseptic seeds as leaf tissue stock for subsequent practice cultures.
10% household bleach, drop of dish soap, and pre-wash the plant tissue with soap and water manually to get macro-particles off. Soak in bleach for 10-30mins depending on surface area and convoluted tissue structures. Rinse 3x in sterile distilled water. Buy a heap of 6" tweezers and use one tweezer per culture vessel to not spread contam culture to culture.
Orchid media works best with coconut water, a banana, and sucrose.
Phytotechlab.com sells everything you need. Plants From Test Tubes 4th edition was my bible when I started. Keep the thread alive and I'll chime in. Best of luck!!!
Sebastian S. Cocioba
CEO & Founder
New York Botanics, LLC