Dear all! Anneliese has spotted (again) some red, very early flowering highly stress young Arabidopsis plants in phytotron 22. We belive this is caused by a bad batch of soil (ED63) - also mushrooms are growing in the same pots. We strongly engourage you (we would even prefer to force you) to use the new modern type of soil introduced to you recently (Gramoflor 2006, see mail below). The MFPL groups have already tested the new soil extensively and do not use the ED63 any longer. Please get in touch with us in case of any questions. Best, Jakub Sent from a "smart"phone - please excuse typos. -------- Originalnachricht -------- Betreff: NEW SOIL for testing: Gramoflor Topf Nr. 2006 Von: "Jez,Jakub" An: gmi ,plants-user@lists.vbcf.ac.at Cc: "VBCFplants.GRP" Dear all, There is a new soil substrate available for testing at both PlantS locations: Gramoflor Profi-Substrat Topf Nr. 2006 Why? As you might know, we regularly had inconsistent and low product quality of our standard substrate ED63, in the past. Sometimes the soil is too dry and can’t take water, another time too wet and full of fungi; perhaps you also remember the “country smell” in the Facility. . . On the other hand, the rough structure makes it necessary to sieve the soil for sensitive experiments including HT plant phenotyping. Therefore, we have started looking for a similar but more professional and homogenous substrate to (depending on your feedback, fully or partially) replace the ED63 in future. How? We have propagated Arabidopsis and N. benthamiana on seven new soil types and compared them to the two standard substrates under standard conditions in two independent experiments. Parameters that were scored include all Lemnatec features (size, shape, color etc. over time), flowering time, plant height, dry weight and seed weight and a thorough visual examination by Anneliese. Based on these results we have decided to give the Gramoflor Profi-Substart Topf Nr. 2006 a chance. Overall, the performance of Gramoflor 2006 is highly comparable to ED63 while providing a highly homogeneous structure and batch quality. Please drop us a mail for detailed results. What do we know about the winner: Gramoflor Profi-Substart Topf Nr. 2006 All-purpose potting-soil for professional use, moderately fertilized (1.2 kg/m3), mixture of slightly decomposed bog peat with organic and/or mineral and/or synthetic additives; pH=5.8 (5.4-6.2) same as ED63, medium rough structure, includes clay, mineral fertilizers, slow-release fertilizers. https://www.gramoflor.com/files/profiflyer_de_130115_ansicht.pdf (Line: Topf+TonXL GF-Topf) What will happen to ED63: We will, of course, keep providing the ED63 in parallel and order upon actual usage. In case of questions please contact us. We are very happy to receive your valuable feedback on the new substrate! Kind regards, the VBCF PlantS Team supported by the FFG FEMTech grant (Klara Wuketich)