Why Autoclave Seed Pellets?
Hello everyone, this is Armando again. I just wanted to let you all know that autoclaving has several more uses than I have explained in my previous blogs. Not only does autoclaving help kill any viral or bacterial pathogens that could reside on the surface of lab materials for instance, but also it turns out these pathogens can all be anchored onto the lab plants too. In the lab, when I prepare to transplant the plants into the different trays and separate out the wild type plants from the transgenic plants. I have to also take into consideration of any bacteria that could be living on the seed pellets, where these pellets are what hold together the soil and the plant seeds together. Below is a picture of several seed pellets:
In order to autoclave the seed pellets what I had to do was first place all of the seed pellets into these large compartment trays not like the ones shown below. When I was doing this, there was about 60 pellets that could fit into each of the trays. Second, which is the easiest step, I simply added water into the trays so that by the time the pellets are placed into the autoclave machines the pellets should start to expand out. Third, I had to put the trays into plastic bio hazardous bags in order to indicate to other lab workers to be cautious around the trays and removing them from the autoclave machine. When I place the seed pellet trays into the autoclave machine, I had to set the mode of the autoclave machine into its liquid mode and gravity mode, because I am autoclaving a wet, bio hazardous material. The gravity mode is meant to for the autoclave machine to set its heat at a stable temperature to which the trays can't be melted at. While the liquid mode is to indicate to the machine to vaporize the water stored in the trays by converting the liquid water into a gas by adding excess heat into the oven. The gas will vaporize and exit through an air duct inside of the machine and thankfully the machine somehow contains the gas so that no bacteria can escape into the outside facility. Lastly, I have to play the wait game as I have to wait patiently for a whole hour till the pellets have been autoclaved. By the time the pellets are finish, I notice that the seed pellets have expanded to a point that the seed roots will easily be able to expand out in the soil and grow healthy, since there are no plant bacteria that can harm the plants. Now that is pretty much it to autoclaving seed pellets. It is a pretty simple, but repetitive process, but hey at least now the plants can grow healthy since any plant-infecting bacteria should be killed off by the heat produced from the autoclaved.
In order to autoclave the seed pellets what I had to do was first place all of the seed pellets into these large compartment trays not like the ones shown below. When I was doing this, there was about 60 pellets that could fit into each of the trays. Second, which is the easiest step, I simply added water into the trays so that by the time the pellets are placed into the autoclave machines the pellets should start to expand out. Third, I had to put the trays into plastic bio hazardous bags in order to indicate to other lab workers to be cautious around the trays and removing them from the autoclave machine. When I place the seed pellet trays into the autoclave machine, I had to set the mode of the autoclave machine into its liquid mode and gravity mode, because I am autoclaving a wet, bio hazardous material. The gravity mode is meant to for the autoclave machine to set its heat at a stable temperature to which the trays can't be melted at. While the liquid mode is to indicate to the machine to vaporize the water stored in the trays by converting the liquid water into a gas by adding excess heat into the oven. The gas will vaporize and exit through an air duct inside of the machine and thankfully the machine somehow contains the gas so that no bacteria can escape into the outside facility. Lastly, I have to play the wait game as I have to wait patiently for a whole hour till the pellets have been autoclaved. By the time the pellets are finish, I notice that the seed pellets have expanded to a point that the seed roots will easily be able to expand out in the soil and grow healthy, since there are no plant bacteria that can harm the plants. Now that is pretty much it to autoclaving seed pellets. It is a pretty simple, but repetitive process, but hey at least now the plants can grow healthy since any plant-infecting bacteria should be killed off by the heat produced from the autoclaved.
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Here is a picture of wild type seed pellets.
I am waiting for the plants to bloom out from the seeds.
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