Page B 
INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING RYERSON FLASKING EQUIPMENT 
IMPORTANT WARNING! DO NOT LCOSEN NOR TAMPER WITH THE STOPPERS UNTIL READY TO 
INJECT SEED. MOLD WOULD LOVE A CHANCE TO GET IN THERE AND START GROWING! 
PREPARING YOUR "LABORATORY". Use the cleanest, least drafty room, such as the 
bathroome Clean it thoroughly with Clorox treated water, putting away everything 
that cannot be so cleansed, such as towels, soap, tooth-brushes, etc. Keep a bowl 
of 10% Clorox-water handy for dipping your fingers, mopping up work table, etc. 
Be sure everything you need 1s on your work table before you start: the agar bot- 
tles, propped so they cannot rolls; labelled, if you are sowing more than one seed 
cross. The small bottles, #1 & #2 containing disinfectant and distilled water. 
Planting droppers. Filter funnels. Bag of sterile stoppers, cellophane squares 
and stringse A small glass or cup, such as an orange juice glasse A watch or 
clock. The seed packets, of course. 
NOW, LOCK YOURSELF IN AND DON*T OPEN THE DOOR FOR ANYONE! 
Run hot water in the tub or shower until the room is full of steam, Turn off spigot 
and let steam settle until you can’t see a drop of it anywhere. Wipe your work 
table with Clorox water and you are ready to begin. 
le Empty seed packet into bottle #1. Recap bottle and shake 3 to 5 minutes, no 
longer, Place filter funnel in small glass and empty contents of bottle #1. into 
apex of funnel, Let liquid drain away so that only seed is left in funnel. 
2. Draw dropperful of distilled water from bottle #2 and wash seeds back into 
bottle #1. Use another dropperful or two to wash all seeds back into disinfecting 
bottle. For a 2eflask packet, two or three dropperfuls should be suffivient. For 
a lOeflask packet, fill the little bottle nearly full of distilled water in order 
to have enough for planting all ten flasks, 
3. Remove stopper from agar bottle. Using dropper, pump seeds and liquid up and 
down in little bottle #1 to evenly distribute seeds. Squirt dropperful of water 
and seeds into agar bottle. If you have used three dropperfuls for a two-flask 
packet, you will need to draw up another half-dropperful for your first flask. 
Twist sterile stopper into neck of fiask. 
4, Repeat instruction #3 for each flask of the seed cross. When finished, cover 
each stopper with cellophane and tie securely around reck of bottle. 
If more than one seed cross is being sown at a sitting, follow instructions, l, 2, 
3, and 4, for each cross, using fresh bottle #1, planting dropper and filter funnel 
for each, to avoid mixing seed. If you have ordered the seeds and bottles from me, 
the agar bottles will already be clearly labelled with the seed cross numbers. Take 
care to plant each cross in bottles bearing the same number. 
5. Place planted bottles on shelf in Wardian case or greenhouse, where they will 
reseive plenty of light. Even direct sun in early morning will not harm them, If 
you cannot resist temptation to pick up a flask somevimes for closer examination, 
please be careful to hold it leveliy. Tilt it too much, and half your ceed will be 
up the sides of the flask instead of on the agar where it belongs: 
First signs of germination will show up enywhere from two weeks to two months, the 
more complicated hybrids usualiy being the slower germinating. If = we hope it 
won't, but IF a small spot of mold appears, it can be killed by boiling the ager in 
that spot over an alcohol lamp. Youtll kill a few seedlings too, but may save the 
rest! 
