High-throughput demonstration production of fast neutron-irradiated Columbia Col-0 Arabidopsis in minimal space. Photos taken August 25, 2000, 57 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.

The image at top shows an overall view of plants growing on the top deck of an ArabiSun lighting system.  Note that all tube stakes are filled with maturing inflorescences from 3-4 plants.  

Due to extended length (17.5 inches) of the tube stakes used here, only a few of these Columbia plants will grow out the top of the tube.  By using a longer tube stake, there is less need to cut or trim the tops of flowers protruding from the tops of the tube stakes.  As shown in the close-up photo on lower right above, flower debris collects on the ArabiTrap film.  Note that the absence of seeds at the film layer of the ArabiTrap reflects the fact that very few Columbia ecotype siliques have shattered under these growing conditions.  Thus, with non-shattering ecotypes such as Ws-2 or Col-0,  the use of a ArabiTrap seed collector is not necessary.

This is currently the last set of pictures in this series.

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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.