Moss Capsule sectioning for slide making

[janvangastel]

Very interesting. I still have a long way to go before I completely understand this. Making such thin sections looks like a big challenge to me.

[mrsonchus]

May the power ("Schwartz" ) be with you.

I gonna need it!

John B.

[mrsonchus]

Hi Jan, hmm, it's a lot to learn but truly fascinating. Start with hand-sectioning - you'll be surprised how beautiful a hand-section can be with the application of a little Safranin stain.
Thanks for looking-in Jan.

p.s. check out the late great Walter Dioni's posts here in the forum archives - they are what started me off over three years ago now!

John B.

[Radazz]

Thank you so much, JohnB!
You are dispelling all of the mystery of this process.
Can’t wait for the next installment.
Radazz

[mrsonchus]

Thank you so much, JohnB!
You are dispelling all of the mystery of this process.
Can’t wait for the next installment.
Radazz

Ahhh Radazz... don't worry my friend, there are plenty of mysteries still to grapple with!

Thanks for your compliment my friend. I hope to make a fresh set of sections over the weekend now that I've established that the wax-blocks are viable. I also have a few Sunflower and Dandelion-root roughing-slides from this batch, all stained and mounted, just drying and stabilising - some images from them soon also.

John B.

[shawn perez]

Hii, How do you store it once dried and cut into blocks?

[mrsonchus]

Hi shawn. If you mean the wax-blocks (containing specimen for sectioning), I use those cheap plastic divided boxes that sets of screws etc come in. As far as ambient environment, room-temp is fine.
The blocks really do keep well for several years at least, in my experience. I often have 'left over' tissue pieces when I've made a set of blocks from infiltrated tissue. I simply put these into a larger & deeper wax-block mold and let it set in the usual way - these I think of as my 'bulk blocks'. They are easily re-melted and the tissue embedded as if it's straight out of infiltration!

Here's an image of one of my (Dandelion root I think) 'bulk-blocks'...

Extra tissue stored in one big wax-block

root bulk block.jpeg (62.59 KiB) Viewed 3043 times

[shawn perez]

Hi shawn. If you mean the wax-blocks (containing specimen for sectioning), I use those cheap plastic divided boxes that sets of screws etc come in. As far as ambient environment, room-temp is fine.
The blocks really do keep well for several years at least, in my experience. I often have 'left over' tissue pieces when I've made a set of blocks from infiltrated tissue. I simply put these into a larger & deeper wax-block mold and let it set in the usual way - these I think of as my 'bulk blocks'. They are easily re-melted and the tissue embedded as if it's straight out of infiltration!

Here's an image of one of my (Dandelion root I think) 'bulk-blocks'...
root bulk block.jpeg

This is really amazing... Thank you