We are having a seed dryer soon in our Farm. In our assessible markets, grain dryers are common but getting choices for seed dryer is not. I am concerned about germination of seeds if dried in grain dryer which doesn't have temperature control options. Please suggest me mechanical seed drying options suitable for a farm that produces seeds in about 30Ha of land.
A relative humidity of 10 - 15% and a temperature of 15°C are recommended by the IBPGR Advisory Committee on Seed Storage
You may want to visit this site: https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/bioversity/publications/Web_version/188/ch06.htm
Based on the preconditions of no temperature regulator, I will recommend you do a test with the procedure suggested below -
• Check the initial moisture content of the seeds
• Fill the dryer with seeds to 50% capacity
• Dry for half the time it takes to get the required moisture content for storing grains using same drier
• Air-dry afterwards on a netting surface to aid air movement then test moisture content at intervals until it reaches the required for storage
• Store at room temperature or process seeds for hermetic storage.
You can then execute these to confirm if there's a need to adjust the procedure suggested above.
Take portion of the newly dried seeds and do a germination test on it (sprouting to test for viability) then store the remainder and test at intervals.
Temperature is a range, based on the moisture content so you can work with a range of 30-32 degrees.
We use a solar dryer wherein the temperature reaches around 60 C during the sunny day. We didnt observe any seed germination.
There is a difference between drying seeds for seed or for milling. For milling the higher is temperature, better is the efficiency. For seeding corn, it is better to limit the temperature at 40° Celsius max. If you dry rice, for every use, it is better to refer to the relative air moisture, end work over 30%. Drying under 30% may cause kernel cracking.
- Depends upon what type of seed you're growing. If the seed is maize or wheat, The optimum temprature will be 35° Celcius to 40° Celcius.
- If the crop is rice, Then the optimum temprature will be 30°-33° Celcius.
- Rotary drier can be used as the construction and working is simple.
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