close ups of seeds

Convolvulus floridus seeds. I soaked these for 6 hours on the 27th, planted them on the 28th, and they are showing signs of germinating on the 31st. The graph paper background is 4 squares to the inch. Frank

I. aquatica, same information, different specie. Still waiting. Frank

This message was edited Mar 31, 2007 9:30 PM

I. carnea fistulosa, sown on 28th, 3 days ago, still waiting. Frank

I. wrightii, palm leaf. It is interesting that near the point of the seeds, they have stirup strap style strands of long fibers. They hang onto everything. Frank

I. wrightii at 60x to see the fibers.

Merremia disecta at 10x.

Turbina corymbosa at 10x. These pictures of seeds are all 10x unless mentioned. The graph paper background is .25 inch/square.

Of the ten species I planted and put on heat, C. floridus, I setosa, and Turbina corymblsa have broke soil to to speak. Setosa has a tough seed coat that needs more attention prior to soaking than I gave them. I think a longer soak at a higher temp would help. If you can speak to this tough seed coat with some solutions, please let it fly. Frank

Hi Frank,
Great photos here.. keep misting that I. setosa, the seedcoat sometimes just stays hard. I did put a wet piece of papertowel on it and misted it with warm water several times a day, as Ron suggested and the seedcoats came right off after a couple of hours, one took till the next day, but it shed it on it's own..

A.

Great photos!

I really like your photos, Frank! Are you using a compound microscope? - Arlan

Wow wow wow!

Joseph

Thanks everyone. Today marks a week since I put to bed 10 different species, on heat , in domes, under light.

I have learned so much about the germination process, just by sitting there each night by my bakers rack and looking at, and watching the process. I have come to the conclusion that there at least three kinds of seed coats, maybe 4, judging by the thickness of the seed coat and the white lining of the seed coat, between the embryo and actual seed coat.

Nobody mentioned this before but it looks like the endosperm we see in the castor bean. The castor bean would be a good classroom model for us, to use, to understand the role of the endosperm in nurturing the cotyledons and the fetus. The evacuation of the embryo, from the seed coat is so much easier for the C bean. Less complications, leaving the endosperm intact, for observation.

Now to the question about this toy digital microscope. No it is not compound, it is designed only for macro views. The lense is to say the least crude, not optical quality. The light it provides is very yellow. But, it does have an optical image capturing disk in it like a digital camera, but older. I found this on ebay.
Recently I was on ebay looking for a low power dissecting microscope, and found that they have gone digital also. The difference being that the image collection disk has been fitted into a cylindrical camera, smaller than a c cell battery, on a buss2 cord, that plugs right into your computer for viewing it on the screen. Buss is buss one, which did not supply power to the gizmos we plugged into the buss port, but had their own power supply. Buss2 supplys power to the 33mm cylindrical camera. For $130 or so, you can buy this camera separately, for the dissecting scope you already own. All you have to do is remove the left optical eye piece, and insert the camera into the 33mm tube, then plug it into your buss port. While it is on screen, then you do the focusing, and bingo. No more sore neck from bending over the microscope.

The digital dissecting microscopes on ebay, have 10x/20x/60x and sometimes
89x resolution. Above 80x, you are beyond the macro range. They are selling for around $300 or so, and many are available as companies liquidate old equipment to upgrade their qc department. drool! Frank

One more thing before I forget. Yesterday I went to Office Max, and bought a pack of 25 sheets of Avery 8167 label sheets. These labels come 80/sheet and they are only .50 inches wide. They turned out to be perfect for a 4" plastic plant label or a pop sicle stick which ever you use in your cups. My main lable has a number, and a name, that corresponds to my printed list.
Then if I want extra cups of something I want more of, I just use a popsicle stick with a printed # on it and I use 80% less labels that way. I can get 4 or 5 #s per lable depending on the font size. Frank

Frank, you probably will have a different experience than me, but I had problems with popsicle sticks. After a while they had a white mold sticking straight out of them in all directions. Must be our wonderful winter humidity, so I went back to plastic sticks that can't mold.

Thanks for the dissecting microscope update, Frank! That is something I have always wanted, but never found the right opportunity or level of motivation... Now with the digital era, I'll need to re-investigate and rethink my dreams!

Arlan

Thanks Beth, that never occured to me, the plastic lables are about 3 times the expense. I should just break down and buy them a thousand at a time. I know where there is a hort store in Portland, will probably go there tomarrow. If there is anything you want me to look for, if I make it there, let me know.

Arlan, take a drooling towel and go type in "digital microscopes' on ebay. They are actually becoming affordable at the low end. Frank

Frank, If you have any old venetian blinds you can cut plastic label sticks from them.

Frank....

Go to Wal-Mart and purchase their cheap mini blinds. Probably won't be much over $10.
Then cut them with a slant about 2" to 3" long.
Use a PERMANENT marker to label your MG's.
You can also write information on the back of the marker.
Works every time!

This way, you will also have your ID for your MG's ready to go in the ground when the MGs are ready to be planted.

VERY INEXPENSIVE!

Emma

Here is how the mini-blind labels look. This is a batch of Hige's that I started.