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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 10, 2016 1:45:12 GMT -5
haha, sounds like he has gotten about to the same place that I have with it but the electrical engineering doesn't sound nearly so intimidating to me. making an x-ray tube would be, plus the beam would be unfocused and it would burn out before to long. but they sell ready to go tubes and mounting fixtures. the expensive part will probably be the electricity to run it as long as it would take to get results with a home built rig. I'd need to keep it on for a matter of hours. little bursts are affordable, but leaving it running could easily get into the 3 or even 4 figures. also, the led shielding makes it easier, but cement works just fine too and is a lot cheaper. I have also considered going about it by using chemicals, but like he said, outside of a lab, that is scary as hell. I have been hitting up local schools and am talking with someone who might be able to help me get in contact with someone. the academics I've talked to seem to think that if I can get my request to someone who heads a physics department then it is the sort of thing they would be amenable to. unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of barriers to getting to talk to someone in that position if you are not already a student or faculty member. my guess is that they get a lot of crazy people harassing them about weird ideas if they keep the lines of communication to the public to open. I am even trying a few crazy hail mary angles. for example, I put this craigslist add up no joke, this is a real add hanging out there on the internet. sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/wan/5530583434.html
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 10, 2016 1:30:45 GMT -5
sweet, thanks looking it up now.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 9, 2016 3:15:18 GMT -5
I have been thinking about trying some seed mutation to add diversity to the gene pool of my corn project. the chemical mutagens sound scary as hell to try and work with outside of laboratory conditions. oddly enough though, building an X-ray machine sounds pretty manageable. cement casing, $55 x-ray bulb, $25-$30 for the mount, $160-$190 for the Geiger counter, $160 for lead sheeting to protect my genitals etc. , $40 of cement to build the housing (which will become an "atomic" planter after I disassemble) , and a friend of mine already owns a high voltage power supply.
so, anyone know anything about X-ray induced mutations in zea seeds or pollen? or just in plants in general?
I will post updates on the project here as they come up.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 2, 2016 4:54:40 GMT -5
oh neet. I have been thinking about going through the spice cabinet and getting out the whole seed spices that I don't often use and try sprouting them for that purpose. it never occurred to me to use corn.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 1, 2016 2:03:58 GMT -5
that makes sense. but would it just be more susceptible to harmful fungal infections or would it also be more hospitable to beneficial fungal infestations? I ask because they seem to be surprisingly healthy. I was expecting them to have died by now, but they actually seem to have tolerated the toddler damage better than many of the other plants. don't get me wrong, I'm sure they will die eventually, it's just kinda interesting to observe the differences alongside the plants that sprouted at the same time under the same conditions. thank you for the info, I often have trouble figuring out the right key words to google when looking for papers on this sort of subject, specific information like that is really helpful.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Mar 30, 2016 21:28:06 GMT -5
interesting development. my three year old uprooted about half of my seedlings (strain was selected against toddler mischief?). and when I was repotting them I noticed that the albino seedlings had significantly more mycorrhizae on the roots. that's weird, right? possible explanations that come to mind: the same mutation that causes the albinism causes the plant to be more compatible with the fungus (optimistic). the plant is actually dying and the fungus mycelium I saw were from fungi that were eating it alive.(pessimistic) the starvation that is caused by the albinism is causing the plant to produce more of the sugars that feed the fungi as a byproduct of metabolizing it's stored sugar. or, the plant has been producing a lot of sugars that it can't convert into energy because it does not have enough chlorophyll. (it's diabetic corn) I suppose I could gather more information by eating the plant, but at this point I am enjoying the entertainment value of the little guys too much to do that without good reason
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Post by starbuckwhy on Mar 28, 2016 4:00:53 GMT -5
makes sense. thanks, everyone! one of the seedlings has started to produce a little chlorophyll on the tip. I think I will keep them around, it will be interesting to see how they progress if it survives. it was keeping pace with the rest of the seedlings until now but has fallen behind in the last couple of days. what you said about losing the interesting trait in your other plant brings to mind something else I had been wondering about. can pollen be saved for the same purposes that one would save seeds? or does it degrade in some significant way that would make it useless? I was also thinking about irradiating pollen rather than seeds to bring out new traits, but I haven't been able to find any research papers that talk about irradiating or otherwise mutating pollen for plant breeding. I am about to transplant all of this first batch of seedlings and start the next batch. I'll let you know how it goes
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Post by starbuckwhy on Mar 26, 2016 1:56:30 GMT -5
two of my corn seedlings are coming up and are growing in pace with the other shoots planted at the same time, except they are yellow, almost white. not sure they will be able to survive, but it would be interesting if they did. has anyone else had this happen? I think that they are growing from my glass gem corn seeds, but at this point, I'm not sure.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Mar 26, 2016 1:41:12 GMT -5
hi, my name is starbuck. stay at home dad/ unlicenced addiction counselor/ artist/ person preoccupied with the idea of breeding my own unusual strain of corn to pass down to my kids as a living family heirloom. I have had a master gardener advise me that corn does "abysmally" in the Oakland/sf bay area. I look forwards to him judgmentally criticizing whatever end product I get from this 5 year project to cross several heirloom native american pop corn breeds with zea diploperennis and then breeding them to tolerate different conditions in my area. shade, drought, and humidity.... also looking into ways to cause random genetic mutations. the UC Berkeley nuclear physics department hasn't gotten back to me yet. plan b is to build an x-ray machine in my shed, which it turns out is totally doable.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Mar 25, 2016 2:22:39 GMT -5
i am planting a bunch of heirloom Native American corns and crossing them with zea diploperennis. this will be the first year of a project that is currently scheduled for 5 years. i want to make my own strain of corn, popcorn specifically. the first two years will just be establishing the genetic base that I will be working with. the third year will be all about documentation and sorting seeds into groups with separate plots in different conditions. the last two years will be all about using the documentation to start intentional, heavy, seed selection and back breeding. i live in a city so a lot of the ground I will be using is borrowed. one plot in the community garden, one in a neighbours back yard and I have been pestering people who own empty lots to let me use their ground as well. we have our own yard, but it doesn't get enough light for corn to do well there. I may use my parents yard for the last two or three years of the project but they live about an hour away, so I won't be doing that until i am a little more certain of what I am planting and what kind of support it will need. I have also been partnering the local universities to help me out by irradiating some of the diploperennis seeds for me to introduce a little extra genetic diversity early one. my hope is that this will increase my chances of getting something interesting in the back breeding stages.
after the 5 years, I will take a step back and see what I have.
also browsing a smattering of other things just for fun, lentils, black bamboo, asparagus in pots, black-eyed peas and kidney beans (planning on crossing those together), and some cotton. not really expecting the cotton to do well, just thought it might be fun to see.
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