RUSH PROCESSING – LIMITED AVAILABILITY

Last fall during the busy season, we were frequently asked if we had rush service. It is a service that is difficult to offer as we can’t continually place rush orders ahead of our daily samples.

However, we do understand that on occasion there are issues that come up and you need results faster. We have decided to try and bring back rush service with limited availablity.

Depending on workload, we will open approximately 10-15 slots a week that could be used for RUSH service when needed. It is important to note that this moves the sample(s) up in PROCESSING only. We cannot change the length of the test. We can sometimes read test results early but there are many variables.

Guidelines:

  • Rush fee will be 15% of the test total or $25.00 whichever is greater – Fee will be added on as a service charge to the sample
  • To request a rush order you must call and speak with Customer Care, we will advise if there is anything available for that week.
  • We will NOT take any rush request by submission forms!
  • No more than two rushed samples per customer per week and five total per month

We hope that you find that this service could be beneficial for your company when we can make it work!

 

CHECK YOUR JUNK MAIL

We have had some calls regarding not receiving planting date summaries, report results, or other correspondence that is sent out automatically. Please check your junk mail to see if it may have been received there. If so, move the item to your inbox and you should receive these emails going forward with no problems.

Emails from the Customer Care desk come from seedlab@iastate.edu and isuseedlab@gmail.com.

 

SEED COUNTS FOR GERMINATION

How many seeds are needed for germination testing?

For germination testing ONLY 400 seeds are needed for the lab to complete an official test (in some cases components of mixtures only need 200 seeds).

It is common for us to not receive enough seed to complete tests and we must reach out to the customer. This halts the testing process until we receive the additional seeds, which means your test results will take longer to report.

We ask that you be generous with your 400 seed count and whenever possible send 800 plus seeds. If you send 800 plus seeds, we shouldn’t have to reach out if a re-test may be needed.

 

TOMBAMOVIRUS BIOASSAY

We have been receiving many requests for tobamovirus bioassays of tomato seeds. Be aware that results may take 4-8 weeks depending on the supply of tobacco plants.

The bioassay involves inoculating young tobacco leaves with a ground seed extract to look for the production of local lesions, evidence of an infectious virus. Plants need to be at the 4 to 5-leaf growth stage (about 6 weeks from planting). If they are too old, they are discarded. Each seed lot can use up to 25 plants, but we simply cannot maintain hundreds of plants at a ready-to-use stage in the event that we receive a seed lot for testing.

These test requests have been infrequent historically and we normally keep enough plants on hand to test one or two seed lots. We ask you to be patient.