EDN #160 Now Available

In this issue:

• Low-Cost Seed Storage Technologies
• Extending Postharvest Life of Fresh Produce: After-harvest handling
• Echoes from our Network:  Experiments to Control Millipedes with Locally Available Ingredients
• From ECHO's Seed Bank: Erythrina berteroana

Download EDN 160

Low-Cost Seed Storage Technologies

Tim Motis

Excerpt:

Tolerance to ambient conditions varies with crop. Our findings showed that velvet bean seeds tolerated high heat and humidity much better than sorghum seeds. This shows that crops can vary significantly in their tolerance of unfavorable storage conditions. Of the two vacuum sealing treatments, vacuum drawn on glass jars with a modified bicycle pump proved to be as or more effective in maintaining seed moisture content in storage than a much more expensive machine sealer. Both desiccants proved effective in maintaining baseline seed moisture content, but only the zeolite Drying Beads® reduced seed moisture over time. Calcium oxide is more widely available (as burnt lime) than zeolite Drying Beads® but takes more heat to reuse—after saturation with moisture—than zeolite Drying Beads®. Zeolite Drying Beads®, at the ratio used in the trial, dried seeds to the point where final germination percentages were adversely affected.

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