Wanting to begin making some permanent slide mounts. I came across this kit on Amazon (I know, I know, will buy elsewhere) But first wanted to know if anyone has used this or something similar. Open to ideas. This would be for myxomycete slides (slime molds) so spores, cappilitition and possibly fruiting bodies. Most of these would be mounted in water or a reagent.
Thanks!
Anyone have experience with this permanent slide prep kit
Re: Anyone have experience with this permanent slide prep kit
I use a synthetic balsam similar to that and am happy with it for the most part, but if there is an easy, straight forward process I am unaware of it.
You will need to replace all the water in your specimens with xylene (or comparable) which for me looks like a series of alcohol solutions I pass through to replace all the water with alcohol (70%, 90%, 95%, 100%). Then when all the water is replaced with alcohol, I then replace the alcohol with xylene in a similar process. The xylene is compatible with the mountant and will eventually dry out leaving only the mountant. It's not especially hard, but it does take time and isn't something you'd want to do at the kitchen table for instance.
Depending on your definition of permanent there are other mountants that might work acceptably and without the need to for alcohol and xylene baths. I've gotten good results with a PVOH-Glycerin mountant I read about in this paper: https://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resb ... ia2014.pdf
A slide mounted with PVOH-G isn't likely to be viable 100+ years from now, but I don't think any slide I've prepared has any value to anyone else but me and if it can last a few decades it's likely sufficient (for me, your uses may differ)
You will need to replace all the water in your specimens with xylene (or comparable) which for me looks like a series of alcohol solutions I pass through to replace all the water with alcohol (70%, 90%, 95%, 100%). Then when all the water is replaced with alcohol, I then replace the alcohol with xylene in a similar process. The xylene is compatible with the mountant and will eventually dry out leaving only the mountant. It's not especially hard, but it does take time and isn't something you'd want to do at the kitchen table for instance.
Depending on your definition of permanent there are other mountants that might work acceptably and without the need to for alcohol and xylene baths. I've gotten good results with a PVOH-Glycerin mountant I read about in this paper: https://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resb ... ia2014.pdf
A slide mounted with PVOH-G isn't likely to be viable 100+ years from now, but I don't think any slide I've prepared has any value to anyone else but me and if it can last a few decades it's likely sufficient (for me, your uses may differ)