Now, that's really neat!

I'd have never thought of it.

Thanks for sharing!

Great idea!!!!

Really good idea!

For lily seeds especially, it would be a huge improvement. Using a conventional light box, or in my case an old toy tracer, the incandescent light source heats up the surface and tends to create a static electricity charge, that can make handling difficult.


Now if I only had a tablet.....

Good excuse to NEEDone, right?

Thanks all. And Rick said it, too much heat from various lightbox set-ups over the years.
The idea jumped into my head about a week after getting my first tablet, but would work on a smart phone as well.

OK - I'm gong to show off my ignorance here. . . but how does a light box help with seed sorting?? Maybe I'm working way too hard!

Brilliant. And perhaps a reason to get a smart-something.

Dayjillymo said:OK - I'm gong to show off my ignorance here. . . but how does a light box help with seed sorting?? Maybe I'm working way too hard!

Backlighting only works with certain seeds. The method is actually a learned process, and although the theory is simple, it's not always as intuitive as one might hope.
---- The basic part is that a backlight allows one to see through (some) seeds, so you can see if "anything" is inside.
---- The hard part can be the interpreting of what you are seeing (or not seeing). But the goal is to be able to more easily remove chaff from real seed and determine if seeds are viable or not.

Seeds of the Lilium genus are probably the most commonly candled seeds. ("Candling" is the name of this process that determines viability through the use of backlighting.)

Without backlighting, they look like, well, just seeds. One assumes they are all good, but you really don't know for sure.


But put a back light to them (or have a candle behind them), and you can see the parts of the seed, including an embryo (if it is present).

Very cool! Thank you for the explanation. I had not heard of that before and I'm most impressed! Now I'll have to experiment a bit with my own seeds and find out which ones will let me "look" at their innards!

That is really great, Rick - both the idea and the photography.

That was the limit for what my pocket size Panasonic Lumix TZ4 could do.

I just got a new camera, still pocketable, paid a whole lot more, but this first week of shooting is proving to be much better quality and even easier to get better close ups.

I found several cheap tripods at Goodwill.