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irradiating seeds
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:24 pm
by pepper11
I am doing a science fair project on irradiated seeds, and I looked at your website and found an experiment "Rad Radishes: Effects of Irradiation on Seeds". In the experiment synopsis, I noticed that they used 50, 100 and 150 mrads. As I was doing more research in science journals, I saw that much greater levels of radiation were used, up to 8kGrays. Is it safe to used 5, 10, 15 Grays in my experiment, or would it kill the plants?
Re: irradiating seeds
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:08 am
by MelissaB
Hi,
If you can obtain seeds that have been irradiated with higher doses of radiation, that should be fine (although I would recommend including at least one low dose just in case). The main problem will be obtaining the seeds, if they are not sold--it is not safe for you (forget the plants!) to be around doses of radiation that high. So, in this case I would stick with whatever is sold, but recognize that you might get different results if you used a higher dose.
Good luck!