As mentioned in my post in the sundew section I am doing some research involving Sarracenia. My partner and I are going to be using Oryzalin (Surflan), Colchicine, and cobalt-60 radiation to try and induce mutations in ten species of Sarracenia. We will be using S. alabamensis ssp. wherryi, S. alata, S. flava, S. flava var. ornata, S. jonesii, S. minor, S. oreophila, S. purpurea ssp. venosa, S. rosea, and S. rubra ssp. rubra. The radiation treatments will only be done on S. minor, S. oreophila, and S. rosea. The other treatments will be done on all 10 species. Some of the details are still be ironed out but it looks like for the radiation treatment we will be irradiating groups of 50 seeds at different levels of Gy units. The Gy levels will be 10, 20, 40, 80, and 120. We expect complete death at the 120 level. Our initial plans for the colchicine and oryzalin treatments were to soak the seeds, however we have decided to change them so that instead of soaking the seeds in the chemicals we will be doing spot treatments on the crown of the seedlings after the first true leaves emerge. We got our seeds from a variety of sources, Brian Barnes, the ICPS seed bank, Meadowview Biological Research Station, and Best Carnivorous Plant Nursery. Hopefully, we'll get some interesting results.
In total, we have 3250 seeds for ten different species. We have 250 of each of the species we are going to be using plus an additional 250 for the three species that will be getting irradiated. Feb. 3rd, 2012, we put all of our seeds into stratification using the Meadowview method. For those of you that are not familiar that means putting the seeds into a paper towel, twisting it into a sort of sack, dampening the towel with DI water, putting the paper towel sack into a ziploc bag with plenty of air, and finally putting the bags into a cooler set at 4C. Every week we will switch the seeds to a freezer set around 0C for a week then back into the cooler they go. They will be in stratification for five weeks. Then we will be doing all of our treatments.
In total, we have 3250 seeds for ten different species. We have 250 of each of the species we are going to be using plus an additional 250 for the three species that will be getting irradiated. Feb. 3rd, 2012, we put all of our seeds into stratification using the Meadowview method. For those of you that are not familiar that means putting the seeds into a paper towel, twisting it into a sort of sack, dampening the towel with DI water, putting the paper towel sack into a ziploc bag with plenty of air, and finally putting the bags into a cooler set at 4C. Every week we will switch the seeds to a freezer set around 0C for a week then back into the cooler they go. They will be in stratification for five weeks. Then we will be doing all of our treatments.