Have radiation, will dose...
I have been off the list for awhile, actually I have 745
emails, so it's been quite awhile.
I couldn't help but comment on all the talk of
irradiating seeds through the mail.
I work with cancer patients in a radiation oncology
center in Seattle. A few years ago I was curious about
this subject myself, so I tried to run a few test trials
on a variety of garden seeds. Various doses to
different seeds, then plant them and just see what comes
up.
I don't recall what doses I gave to most of the seeds,
but I do remember that only, like two seeds sprouted,
and then withered away.
I do remember that I gave 30000 Cgy or 30000 Rads to my
pumpkin seeds, and they never sprouted. That was using
a 6Mv beam. If any of you ever had your prostate treated
you got about 7000 rads, and think back to how your
bowels felt. :-)
Megavoltage, (photon x-ray) is of course more
penetrating than electron beams used by the postal
service. But one should note that it really depends on
the energy of the electron beam. Some electron beams
give up their maximum dose value at a deeper depth than
photon xrays. Therefor seeds in direct path of the beam
would certainly get some dose, regardless of aluminum
foil packaging or whatever.
Anyway, all this has me glowing, shall we say. I would
like to run a better organized experiment with some
seeds next year, and keep track of specific doses.
Not that I expect to grow a magic pumpkin, but just the
thought of a cool mutation would be great to see.
Well it's a long time until spring, we will wait and see.
Chris Andersen
Seattle
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