Lets have a look at how our little Arabidopsis plants are getting on. These were the plants that were growing in the yellow ‘nursery’ boxes. The young seedlings are about two weeks old, now growing hydroponically in blackened boxes to keep the roots dark.
Here, were having a wee look to see if the roots have emerged from the bottom of the cut Eppendorf tubes. Yes ! there are roots coming out into the hydroponic media (a minimal medium without any sucrose).
The boxes are in environmentally controlled growth cabinets (Sniggers cabinets) where we can control light intensity and temperature and humidity. I have the plants growing in 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark (12h LD) at 20oC. These are quite standard “lab” conditions. I suppose 12h LD would be equivalent to the equinoxes in Nature…..would we ever get 20oC in Scotland in March or September ? (I very much doubt!)
