The British Association of Seed Analysts
News
Jane Taylor stands down from the BASA Committee
BASA - July 2016
Mrs Taylor advised that she would be standing down from the BASA Committee following her retirement from OSTS. She thanked members for their support and confirmed she would be continuing as a BASA member.
We would like to thank Jane for all her valuable input into seed testing and the BASA Committee over the years.
ISTA announce Annual Meeting 2017
ISTA - March 2016
Date: 19th - 22nd June 2017
Location: Denver, Colorado USA
The event will be held in collaboration with the Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) and the Society of Commercial Seed Technologists (SCST). This will be the first time that the three seed testing associations will be holding a joint Annual Meeting.
ISTA Germination workshop announced
ISTA - November 2015
Date: 11th - 13th June 2016
Location: Saku, Estonia
This workshop aims at presenting and discussing the principles of the ISTA germination test, seedling evaluations for different species, results calculations and reporting plus aspects of quality management linked to germination testing. The workshop is for persons who are involved in seed testing according to the ISTA Rules.
ISTA Quality Assurance workshop announced
ISTA - November 2015
Date: 10 - 13 June 2016
Location: Saku, Estonia
The objective of this workshop is to give experienced laboratories the opportunity to discuss and be guided on ways to improve their Quality Assurance system and benefit from it. The workshop is for members of experienced laboratories that have already a well running quality management system in place.
Seed Testing International
ISTA News Bulletin No.150 - October 2015
Feature Articles:
Presidents report
Changing with the times
Rule delevopments
Accreditation
Seed Science
Video showing the OSTS, Cambridge 1939
.britishpathe.com - July 2015
Archieve footage of different processes used to test the quality of seeds in laboratories at the Seed Testing Station, Cambridge.
Seeds are separated from the impurities and examined, then planted and placed in incubator to see what percentage is fertile. Most of fruit and vegetable seeds were examined in similar way.
NIAB 2015 rule changes newsletter to LSTS
OSTS, Linda Maile - June 2015
A newsletter has been released by the OSTS to all Licensed Seed Testing Stations with useful updates and references to proposed rule changes agreed at recent ISTA meetings:
Rule changes to Sampling, Purity Analysis and Germination tests.
Tetrazolium testing.
Temperature range and tolerances.
Nomenclature changes.
Seed Testing International
ISTA News Bulletin No.149 - April 2015
Feature Articles:
Future needs in seed testing
NASSTEC: a European project to promote native seeds for grassland restoration
ISTA Annual Meeting, Montevideo, Uruguay
Proposed changes to the Ineternational Rules for Seed Testing 2016 Edition
News from Seed Science Technology
Workshop announcements
Forest tree seeds arrive at 'Doomsday vault'
BBC News - March 2015
The Svalbard "doomsday" vault - widely known for protecting global food crop seeds - has accepted its first delivery of forest tree species seeds.
Since opening its doors in 2008, the vault now stores 840,000 varieties of food crops and is designed to withstand all natural and human disasters.
Norway spruce and Scots pine samples have entered the vault inside a mountain on the Arctic archipelago. Researchers hope the tree seed samples will help monitor long-term genetic changes in natural forests.
"For the advancement of seed testing"