Sieve Recommendation?

[Russell L. Malmberg]

Can anyone recommend a particular seed siever set,
or standard mesh size screen?
(for harvesting Arabidopsis seeds).

Thanks,

Russell

********************************
Russell L. Malmberg
rus...@dogwood.botany.uga.edu
********************************

[Fred Lehle]

We use the following two brass sieves and a bottom pan for hand
cleaning of Arabidopsis seeds.

Empty siliques are removed with a 355 micrometer testing sieve
(No. 45 A.S.T.M.E-11 spec., Tyler equivalent 42 mesh) and fines
can be removed from retained seeds with a 180 micrometer
(No. 80 A.S.T.M.E-11 spec., Tyler equivalent 80 mesh) testing sieve.
These items are usually found under the category "sieve" in the
scientific supply catalogs.

Seed cleaning tip: Harvest Arabidopsis plants before their stems
become completely dried out, i.e. before all green coloring has faded.

Reason: When completely air-dried, Arabidopsis stem and leaf
tissue is extremely brittle and crumbles easily to fragments about the
same size as the seeds themselves, making them harder to clean by
sieving.

Fred Lehle, Ph.D.
LEHLE SEEDS
webm...@arabidopsis.com
http://www.arabidopsis.com

[Russell L. Malmberg]

Thanks to everyone who replied so quickly.

The majority recommendation was to create a 2, 3, or 4 ply of
cheesecloth as a filter. This could be thrown away after
each collection to avoid contamination.

Some other suggestions:
*****
I bought mine from VWR several years ago - it's a "Cellector Tissue Sieve"
62399-918, and the "Fine Mesh Kit" 62399-951. This provides you with too
many options, but one/two of the meshes are perfect for Arabidopsis seeds.
*****
I use No 35 sieve , opening 500 micrometer (.0197in), Tyler equivalent
32 mesh from Fisher.
*****
I've always used "tea balls", the very nice kind made of fine
screen rather than perforated metal balls, with great success for Arab
seeds. You should find them at any nice coffee shop that also sells tea
and they come in several sizes.
*****
We use a little plastic-mesh tea strainer, available at shops throughout
England for about 50p
*****

[Ross Albert Rupert]

Russell,
We use the following for Arabidopsis seed:
Metal screen, 30 mesh, 52 mm, 0.0203 inches, by central scientific (CENCO).

Hope this helps you.

Paul Bottino

On 17 Jun 1996, Russell L. Malmberg wrote:

> Can anyone recommend a particular seed siever set,
> or standard mesh size screen?
> (for harvesting Arabidopsis seeds).
>
> Thanks,
>