What hapenned to this flask?
 

Hello,

I have a friend and he recently got this terrible surprise.

His media and his seedlings, become brown and die, suddenly.

Can any one help us and tell me what happened to them?

Thank you,

Mine are a lot smaller, but I would like to avoid that taht would happen to me too.

I'm no see sowing expert yet but I'm going to take guess that seedling in the flask got contaminated by mold or something another. Maybe someone with more experience will be able to give you a more accurate answer.

The picture is not quite clear so it's hard to tell exactly what happened. If you can take more pictures on different angle it's may help to figure out what happened. As Chocolatte said, it could got contaminated by mold and bacteria. Normally, mold and bacteria grow all over the surface of media in a few days when you first see them. If you keep the flask longer you may see brown media. Second, you may got what it's called phenolic issue. When seedlings in media and environment that they don't like they release phenolic chemical which make media brow. This is the common problem of tissue culture such as orchid/plant stem or node propagation. Growing seedlings too long in a media could be problem. The solution may be: replate seedlings on new media as soon as possible. If seedlings got contamination then disinfect. Use a different media if it keeps happen. Phenolic issue is the headache problem for tissue culture. There's no unique solution to solve it. Some techniques to reduce phenolic in media: replate, put in dark for few days, add more citric acid and vitamin C, add more Calcium in media, change media so on and so on. One technique may work for a person and it may not work for other. Hope it may help.

Looks like the dreaded "Brown-Out". Contamination is usually pretty evident. If that was the culprit you'd know because you would see the mold.

Newflasker is right. Brown-out occurs over time if you don't replate quickly enough. Is this a mother flask or a replate? Sometimes seed will come up great on germination media, but will need a different medium instantly or they die. Sometimes it's due to build up phenolic compounds. Either way, it is a timing issue. I'd try again, but replate immediately after germination.

Thank you, very much!! I asked for other pictures and I will put them as soon as I have them.

It's a mother flask, there is no evident mold. He told me the dying process was quite fast.

Thank you again for helping!!

Olivia

I agree with Royal. The seedlings are big to be that crowded. They should be transfered to replate flasks with room to grow.

Thank you all, for helping. Today I got to new pictures, this ones are from a flask where the plants are starting to extactly as the others.

First a little brown, then the rest, no visible mold.

Hope you can see something new in this photos

As I said: if contamination, usually mold/bacteria grow all over the surface of medium. We don't see them in your medium but a special bacteria could cause it who know. It doesn't look like phenolic issue. If you see small brown/black areas at the base of seedlings (look at the sample picture) and they keep growing you may have this problem. Moreover, you see some areas are black and some not in medium. Last, your medium may have been changed a lot: pH, chemical. You cut a potato, banana and fruit you may see they turn light yellow or brown a short time later. A small amount of ferrous ions of fruit could be oxidized to be ferric ions, and precipitate if pH is high enough and give brown color. The easy and good way to fix the problem is to replate them ASAP. Just look at the picture, that is all I can guest. Some members in this forum will have more information. :)

Hello,

After thinking a lot in all the things you are saying, it is probable that is the PH.

I'm not sure if my friend put tomato in the media, I just asked him, but I don't think so. Maybe the Ph is not exactly the right one.

Well, as soon as I know I will tell you. Let's hope it's just that and we can solve it soon.

Thank you all,

Olivia

It could also be a sugar-related problem. It would then be tied to pH change. The nutrient uptake by the plants comes to a stop. This usually occurs in unvented flasks, but can occur in any.
After the problem starts in an individual plant it is very hard to save it, but putting them in a medium with a SMALL amount of zuchinni (actually!) will, in some cases, save the plants. I believe that is because zuchinni contains one of the most complex sugars known. If you use it in mother flasks you will get unbelievable foliage growth but little or no pb or root growth.