MORE ABOUT OUR INFRASTRUCTURE...

Our installation can be divided into three main areas: Laboratory, Seed Storage, and Nursery.

LABORATORY

Our laboratory is located within a 50 m2 building. It is worthwhile to note that during the construction all use of wooden materials was avoided almost completely - the building is made of bricks, cement, and steel; this reduces considerably the risk of contamination.

  

- A pressurized 12 m2 room. The air from the outside is injected by means of a medium pressure air blower through a system of filters, starting with the coarse one to get rid of the insects and ending with the finest filter, a 24" x 24" HEPA filter with an effectiveness of 99,7 % for particles and bacteria larger than 0,3 microns. The windows are air-tight; the walls are covered with ceramic tiles up to the ceiling, and the ceiling is also washable. This allows us to carry out a very thorough disinfection of the room with bleach by means of an air compressor and a sprayer. 24 hours after a disinfection, the contamination count obtained from exposed petri-dishes gave the following average results: (standard 4" petri-dishes exposed for 60':

At the floor level: fungi = 0.1, yeasts = 0.3, bacteria = 5.5;

At the working bench level: fungi= 0.0, yeasts =0.15, bacteria = 2.4;

In front of the main HEPA filter: fungi = 0.0, yeasts = 0.0, bacteria = 0.25. 

Within the laminar flow hood: fungi = 0.0 , yeasts = 0.0, bacteria = 0.16.

- General use 24 m2 room with features similar to the previous room.

- A  6 m2 storage room.

Our laboratory equipment consists of the following:

- Laminar flow hood with 24"x30" HEPA filter with an efficiency of 99,9%.

- 30 liter sterilizer/incubator, with 20º - 220º C thermostatic control.

- A 20 l / 1 bar / 121º C  autoclave

- A 130 l / 1 bar / 121º C autoclave with digital temperature control

- 20 g / 10 mg precision scale.

- 2 kg / 2 g and 500 g / 0.1 g digital scales.

- pH-meter.

- 60 l, 18º - 40º C growing / culture box with temperature control.

- 2 m3, 18º - 40º C growing box  with temperature control

- Complete lab equipment, like microscope, petri-dishes set (300), culture test tubes, etc.

- Sterilize working gowns (in autoclave at 120ºC).

With our equipment we can maintain high standards of disinfection levels within the room, carry out in vitro propagation, sterile mycelium production (Pleurotus ostreatus and Shiitake), carry out quality control of food products (humidity content, pH, bacterial contamination, etc.), obtain the germination percentage.

STORAGE

All the seeds are stored under the optimum conditions. By means of a sterilizer and a scale we check the humidity contents of the seeds and we adjust it to its optimum level, which varies from one species to the other. The seeds are stored in two refrigerator, one with 440 l and the other with 180 l capacity at temperatures of  +5º C y +3ºC. 

         

For packaging of seeds, we use precision digital scale and impulse sealer.

NURSERY

We have an electrically heated  7 m2 nursery bed with digital temperature control and an automatic watering system.  We also have 900 speedling trays, most with 112 cells x 15 cm for our experimental nursery and for growing of plants on order.