When more constant temperature and light conditions are required or when effluent from cultures need to be collected and autoclaved (e.g. cultures from outside the U.S.), we use a room across from the greenhouse that contains three benches with removable trays. High-output sodium vapor lights provide illumination for 14 hours each day. Temperatures since we moved plants to this room have been remarkably stable, ranging from 24-26 C. Humidity likely will fluctuate with season.

The trays under each bench collect culture effluent that drains into buckets via spigots (green arrows). Contents of each bucket are either discarded or autoclaved, depending on the origins of cultures (e.g. first-generation trap culture vs. monospecific cultures started from spores). See quality control for other procedures followed to insure final cultures are clean.

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