Green Onion

[JimT]

Four LS's of the epidermis of the green stalk showing the effect of different stains. All with the 20X obj.

First one is with iodine, second with toluidine blue, third with eosin Y. and the fourth with red food coloring. I was pleasantly surprised with the results from the red food dye and will use it more often.

[zzffnn]

Very nice, JimT!

What is the brand or exact name of the red food dye? And where did you buy it?

It may be useful as live dye for protists too, I am guessing?

[billben74]

Nice post. Interesting to see the comparison.
Makes me want to browse the stains and get some onion out...

[JimT]

Thanks Zzffnn and Bill. Dye is McCormick Food Colors. Used a lot to dye eggs and should be at your favorite grocery store.

Not sure about protists as it is mixed with vinegar but maybe so. Worth a try.

JimT

[Rodney]

Nice comparison, since the vinegar is a weaker acid, could very well work better with certain dyes and worth looking at other possibilities.
Rodney

[mrsonchus]

Very nice Jim!

It looks to me that the red food-dye has stained the nuclei whilst leaving alone the thickened stomata-linings, unlike the Iodine and TBO which each seem to have stained both, while the Eosin seems to have left alone the nuclei....
How about combining (sequentially that is) the food-colour and the Eosin perhaps with a view to having a differential stain/counterstain effect for the nuclei (food-colour red) and the stomata-linings that lovely Eosin purple....


Lovely to see a nice series like this one Jim - good LSs too - I always mess them up by hand!

Nice work Jim!

[JimT]

Thanks Rod. John you combine your praise with assignments for more work

Actually, I do want to try some different mixes so stay tuned! It is fun to try new things.

JimT

[gekko]

Wonderful work! Beautiful images, and I agree that the red food coloring stained image is the most beautiful.

[vasselle]

Bonjour
Très belle série images
Cordialement seb

[JimT]

Thanks Gekko and merci Seb. As I said, stay tuned

[hkv]

The last one looks almost like DIC. Great effect!

[einman]

Very nice indeed!

[JimT]

HKV and Einman, thanks. Last one was oblique and a stack and maybe a little misaligned?

[Seb28]

Nice and interesting.

[Manfred]

Jim,
very interesting, I like all of them - and -I`ve to try it too, thank you for sharing