Many tree species are having recalcitrant seeds. To conserve them cryopreservation is the available method. Is there any alternative methods available?
Storage of recalcitrant seeds can be achieved to some extent by maintaining high moisture levels around the seeds at suitable temperatures. Have a look at the relevant section of the chapter at http://nsl.fs.fed.us/Chapter%204.pdf for more information. It is however labour intensive, there is a high risk of fungal growth, some seeds will likely germinate and I do not think that this technique would be suitable for long term seed conservation. In the past, I circumvented this problem by maintaining a living gene bank of specimens, rather than wasting money and time on unreliable seed storage. Some recalcitrant species cannot tolerate cryopreservation under any moisture regime, so even this method may prove unreliable for some species.
Christina Walters, with the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (USA), has extensively studied storage methods for recalcitrant seeds. She has many peer-reviewed articles posted here on ResearchGate. Definitely worth a look.
As far as I know, there is absolutely no fool-proof method for the storage of recalcitrant seeds even using cryopreservation. Recalcitrant seeds are chlorophyllous and acquire the ability to carry out photosynthesis on their own and hence the only way out is to see that such seeds continue their life once anchored and settled in soil.
Apart from hydrated storage which can maintain some of them in the short to medium term, recalcitrant seed storage is the only long-term storage method..see papers by Berjak et al
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