• grill
• cooking pod
• alcohol burner
• gloves
• forceps
• scalpel (or a very sharp knife)
• kitchen stove

• flasks containing media
• kitchen paper
• 70% ethanol
• Clorox (bleach solution)
• jar (for sterilizing the capsule)
• cotton pad
• dishwashing detergent

We us the steam above a pot with boilding water to provide sterile conditions. To minimize the risk of contaminations you should reduce draft in your room as much as possible. Close all windows and doors while you are flasking. In the picture below you can see our preferred arrangement of tools (for right-handed person).

Open the bottle with 70% ethanol and place you forceps or replating tool in it. Fill about 3cm water in your pot and turn on your kitchen stove. The temperature of the boilding water must be high enough to produce a steady flow of steam. As soon as the water starts to boil, take a kitchen paper, soak it with 70% ethanol and use it to clean the grill. When you finished cleaning place the grill on the pod.

Carefully remove dead flower parts of the capsule to reduce the risk of contaminations.

Rinse your jar with 70% ethanol and fill the flask with a 1% chlorine solution. Because DanKlorix has a concentration of 2,8%, it has to be diluted with distilled water (1:2). To make sure that the solution reaches every region of the capsule, a drop of dishwashing detergent should be added to the chlorine solution. Now it's time to clean the capsule with 70% ethanol (a cotton pad work fine here) and put it in the chlorine solution.

The following steps must be done in the sterile area (steam). Open test tubes and their cotton plugs have to stay in the steam till the test tube is closed again.

After sterilizing the capsule for 15 minuten you can start to open the capsule in the sterile area (steam). Put on your gloves, soak a piece of kitchen paper with 70% ethanol and put it down on the grill. Take the flask containing the capsule and open it in the steam. Place the lid of the flask somewhere on the table and transfer the capsule with a flamed forceps to the kitchen paper, which is lying on the grill. Hold your forceps for a short moment in the boiling water and bring it back into 70% ethanol.

Open the capsule with a flamed scalpel and forceps. After doing that, hold your forceps and the scalpel for a short moment in the boiling water and bring it back into 70% ethanol.

Take a test tube and remove the aluminium foil cap. Place the foil cap close to the pod on a kitchen paper which is soaked with 70% ethanol.

Take the forceps out of the 70% ethanol and flame it. Remove the cotton plug with the flamed forceps and place the plug on the grill.

Flame your replating tool and pick up some seeds with it. Transfer the seeds directly into the test tube on the media. After bringing the seeds on the media hold the replating tool for a short moment in the boiling water and bring it back into 70% ethanol.

Pick up the forceps, which is holding the cotton plug, and put the plug back into the test tube. Hold the forceps for a short moment in the boiling water and bring it back into 70% ethanol.

Flame the cotton plug.

Put the aluminium foil cap on the test tube. To make shure that the foil cap does not move around we put a rubber band around it.

• open flasks and their lids have to stay in the steam till they are closed again
• don´t move around to fast while open flasks are lying in the steam
• don´t speak while open flasks are lying on the grill

You should keep your flasks in a bright and warm (20 - 25°) place. It is very important to prevent direct sun, because the seeds in the flasks will become to hot if they get direct sun. Beside nature light, artificial light can be used as well. We prefer T5 fluorescent tubes with light color 865. T5 tubes need less power and they do not get that warm as T8 tubes do.