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Common Question: What are the requirements for the controled enviroment to slow dry seeds?
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The requirements are basically clean, dry and not above room teimp.
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To acheive this you can :
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Place your seeds in a clean / new paper lunch sack, label it, and set it in a cool dry place (out of direct sun light) for several days.
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Next place it in a clean / sterilized ice chest (hot water, soap, vinegar or
hydrogen peroxide (not bleach), with a small Eva Dry dehumidifier (they don't require electricity to work).
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Place the ice chest in an area out of direct sunlight, with a temp of 72 F or under (but above freezing), for eight days. During that eight days, (every two days) open, remove sack, shake lightly, and return promptly to the the ice chest. This will loosen any plant material still on the seeds, that you might have missed.
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The next step is to place them in the final stage dryer.
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You can make your own seed dryer from any of the items listed below, by cleaning / sterilizing them first (hot water, soap, vinegar or
hydrogen peroxide (not bleach), then adding a small dehumidifier to it.
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Refrigerator - ** non functioning, but door gasket must be in good condition
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Old freezer - ** <- this is what I use.
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Large dishwasher **
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^^ the nice thing about all of these is, they are gasketed, have shelves, and can be had for free (curb score or recycling centers).
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Place your seeds in the bottom of a clean cardboard box, or a large paper sack (wear gloves to avoid moisture & oils from your hands getting on the seeds). Place your box or sack in your clean / sterilized, gasketed, drying box.
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Set the dehumidifier (*) to 70 % for two days, then drop the setting to 60 % for two days, and keep dropping it every two days, until you hit 20 %. Very few home models will dry the air to below 20 % humidity.
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(*) If your dehumidifier doesn't have a digital readout, no biggie, you can buy a cheap digital temp / humidity gauge to help you slowly drop down the humidity.
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After eight days, remove your seeds (wearing gloves), weight them on a scale, place them in small lots in your airtight containers, add silica desicant packs (twice the weight of the seeds you are storing), and seal your containers. Small silica desicant packs can be purchased at hobby shops, or from online packing / shipping businesses or coin dealers.
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Place the small airtight containers (either numbered or with abbrevated strain names written on them in permanent marker) into a tupperware container (just to keep them together & this gives you a place to put a sheet of paper listing what is in each numbered or abbrevated containers).
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I say small lots, because it makes more sense to have 20 seeds in 10 airtight containers than it does to have 200 seeds in just one.
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Most people only need to pull 10 to 20 seeds at a time, and you don't want to expose all of them to air / moisture, so small lots are the way to go.
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Then into the refrigerator.....
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Or you can dry them for several additional days, using a professional drying cabinet, or one using a modified home dehumidifier. Most home dehumidifiers can pull humidity down to 20 % in a 400 sq ft room (easily). Hhaving a tech friend modify the rheosta, to fool it, as to the actual R/H percentages, will get your unit to continue to work, below it's normal range. That way it draws down humidity into the 6 % to 12 % range. Best to verify temp & R/H using one of those digital combo thermometers.
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When I finally get down to under 12 % (8 % being the target), seeds quickly go into small / heavy (seal a meal) freezer storage bags (with paper I.D. tags), in go desicant packs, and these little oxygen absorbing packets (that Granger Supply carries). That way I get both R/H and Oxygen percentages down, and keep them down (contained). My bags get lightly vaccumed, sealed, then into (for the freezer) tupperware (also with dessicant packs & oxygen absorbing packs). Then the tupperware goes into a (seal a meal) freezer storage bag, vaccumed, sealed, and into the freezer (inside two cold paper sacks (you can get these at Wal-Mart in the Ice Cream Isle for free) <-keeps the storage packaging from freezing to the freezer shelves.....
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Doing it this way, is more professional, and guarantees a great germ rate, many years later.......
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Hope this helps someone....