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    Seed Storage

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    Costas Aggelidis
    Seed storage is important for preserving grains, protecting species from extinction, and ensuring genetic diversity. Proper storage conditions, such as temperatures between 20-40% relative humidity and 5-8% seed moisture content, are needed to maintain seed viability. The Millennium Seed Bank Project stores over 31,000 plant species and 1.9 billion seeds, the largest collection in the world. Controlling temperature and humidity is essential for seed storage, as these factors influence seed aging and deterioration. Maintaining low moisture content below 12% prevents fungal and insect growth.

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    Seed Storage

    Uploaded by

    Costas Aggelidis
    89 views2 pages
    Seed storage is important for preserving grains, protecting species from extinction, and ensuring genetic diversity. Proper storage conditions, such as temperatures between 20-40% relative humidity and 5-8% seed moisture content, are needed to maintain seed viability. The Millennium Seed Bank Project stores over 31,000 plant species and 1.9 billion seeds, the largest collection in the world. Controlling temperature and humidity is essential for seed storage, as these factors influence seed aging and deterioration. Maintaining low moisture content below 12% prevents fungal and insect growth.

    Original Description:

    How to dry seeds with air.

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    Seed storage is important for preserving grains, protecting species from extinction, and ensuring genetic diversity. Proper storage conditions, such as temperatures between 20-40% relative humidity and 5-8% seed moisture content, are needed to maintain seed viability. The Millennium Seed Bank Project stores over 31,000 plant species and 1.9 billion seeds, the largest collection in the world. Controlling temperature and humidity is essential for seed storage, as these factors influence seed aging and deterioration. Maintaining low moisture content below 12% prevents fungal and insect growth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    89 views2 pages

    Seed Storage

    Uploaded by

    Costas Aggelidis
    Seed storage is important for preserving grains, protecting species from extinction, and ensuring genetic diversity. Proper storage conditions, such as temperatures between 20-40% relative humidity and 5-8% seed moisture content, are needed to maintain seed viability. The Millennium Seed Bank Project stores over 31,000 plant species and 1.9 billion seeds, the largest collection in the world. Controlling temperature and humidity is essential for seed storage, as these factors influence seed aging and deterioration. Maintaining low moisture content below 12% prevents fungal and insect growth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    ROTRONIC HUMIDITY FUN FACTS

    Seed Storage

    Around 10,000 years ago as humans


    began to shift over from a hunting
    and gathering culture to a farming
    culture, preserving and storing
    seeds became a very important
    aspect of, not only survival, but of
    civilization itself.
    There are various reasons to
    store seeds, starting from simply
    preserving grain for consumption
    later in the year or as sowing for
    the next season. The longer the
    storage period, the more complex
    is the actual process of collection
    and preservation of seeds. Long
    term storage is used to facilitate a
    specific outcome such as protecting
    a species from extinction or to
    ensure genetic variety in future
    generations. Long term storage
    may also be considered in order to
    have a backup source in case of catastrophic events like natural disasters and outbreaks of diseases.
    These types of long term storage
    are usually accomplished in well
    protected storage buildings called
    seed banks.

    Facts & Figures


    The oldest seed that has grown into a
    viable plant was a Judean date palm
    seed that was about 2,000 years old.
    The Millennium Seed Bank Project in
    the UK is the biggest seed bank in the
    world. Currently they store 31,880
    species and 1,907,136,030 seeds.

    SANJAY ACHARYA

    Seed storage
    in general

    Inside each seed is a living plant


    embryo that breathes through the
    exchange of gases and is constantly
    undergoing metabolic processes
    known as aging. The natural lifespan of a seed is influenced by several factors including: permeability
    of the seed coat, dormancy and
    seed physiology. One of the most
    important factors in seed lifespan is
    the storage environment. Temperature and humidity play a key role in
    effective seed storage environments.

    Generally

    Why the need


    to measure humidity?

    Proper storage conditions maintain


    relative humidity levels between
    20% and 40% providing corresponding seed moisture content
    between 5% 8%, depending on
    the type of seed. This range is safe
    for most seeds. When seed moisture
    continued

    As mentioned above, controlling


    the environment in seed storage is
    essential for maintaining the germination capacity or the food quality
    of certain seeds.

    As a rule of thumb, for every 1%


    decrease in the moisture content of
    the storage environment, seed storage life will double. The same
    applies for every 5C decrease of
    the storage temperature. Another
    rule of thumb is; the sum of the
    temperature (in degrees F) and the
    relative humidity (in percentage)
    should be less than 100 for optimum seed storage conditions.
    Storage conditions

    ROTRONIC HUMIDITY FUN FACTS

    Storage conditions (continued)


    content drops too low (<5%),
    storage life and seed vigor may
    decline. When seed moisture content raises above 8%, aging or seed
    deterioration can increase. Deterioration involves cell membrane
    integrity, along with other biochemical processes, all resulting in
    loss of vigor and viability. Seeds
    with a moisture contents above
    12% will promote growth of fungi
    and insects. Most seeds cannot
    germinate until seed moisture content is above 25%.
    Seed preparation for long term
    storage (Seed bank)
    The seeds first get put in to a drying room where temperature and

    "PHOTO BY DAVID ILIFF. LICENSE: CC-BY-SA 3.0"

    Why the need . . .

    The Millennium Seed Bank Project buildings at Wakehurst Place,


    West Sussex, England.

    humidity are carefully maintained


    at 15C and 15% relative humidity.
    Under these conditions the seeds
    gradually dry out. They are then
    cleaned, counted and put into air-

    tight containers, before being


    placed in the seed bank at -20C.
    The seeds are tested for viability
    on a regular basis.

    135 Engineers Road, Hauppauge, NY 11788


    Tel. 631-427-3898 Fax. 631-427-3902 [email protected]

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