High-throughput demonstration production of fast neutron-irradiated Columbia Arabidopsis in minimal space. Photo taken July 31, 2000, 32 days after planting.

Views of upper shelf of a double-decker ArabiSun lighting system at LEHLE SEEDS Round
Rock Texas production growth room RR3 at 24 C.  The shelf shown contains a 4 x 5 array of
9-pot ArabiPatch growing systems fitted with 17.5 inch tube stakes..  Shelf contains a total of 180 pots each containing 4 plants for a total of 720 plants.  As the lower shelf contains an additional 20 ArabiPatch containers configured similarly, the ArabiSun double-decker, which takes up less than 2.7 square feet of floor space, is shown here growing a total of 1,440 Arabidopsis plants (360 pools of 4).

Note that each tube stake is fitted with an ArabiTrap seed trap about 4 cm from the base of the
tube stake.  A thin film with a hole to allow inflorescence penetration is held in place by the
orange ArabiTrap ring.  The ArabiTrap seed trap helps prevent shattered seed from falling
to the medium surface.  Our research with the ArabiTrap suggests that its use is not needed with non-shattering ecotypes such as Ws and Col-0 Arabidopsis.  It would have more utility with ecotypes which shatter their seeds, e.g. Landsberg erecta.

The image at top shows an overall view of plants growing on the top deck of a ArabiSun lighting system.  Note that many plants have bolted by 32 days of planting.  Overall growth rate is, however, slower than a non-irradiated wild type.   At lower left is a close-up of what happens when an inflorescence fails to find its way through the hole in the ArabiTrap seed collection film.  Typically, about 30 % of the seedlings will need some human assistance to maneuver past this film obstacle which is a disadvantage of this design.  Such assistance is not required of the inverted cone design of an Arasystem Aracon, whose hole is about the same diameter as the photo at bottom left.  Many plant inflorescences do manage to grow straight up the tube on their own (lower right).

Click here to go back to images taken 17 days after planting in this series.
Click here to go forward to images taken 57 days after planting in this series.

Click here for more details about this demonstration project.
Click here to return to LEHLE SEEDS home page.

ArabiSun, ArabiPatch and ArabiTrap are trademarks of LEHLE SEEDS.  Arasystem and Aracon are trademarks of Beta Tech bvba.  Copyright  LEHLE SEEDS  2000 All rights reserved.