GardenQuilts said:... Others are drying, but it is rainy and humid, so they may not be ready for this swap. ...
My dainthus are taking forever to dry. You may have to join patrob's cubits swap if you HAVE to have more dianthus.
It's too late for the Beta Swap, but you can dry seeds in a typhoon if you have tight-sealing jars and silica gel.
Put the seeds and/or the silica gel into paper envelopes and tape or staple them shut so you don't need to separate silica gel from seeds when you're done.
Now put both into the jar and
seal it tightly.
(You want to pull humidity out of the seeds, not the entire atmosphere.)
Mix them up every day or two, so the seeds on the bottom are exposed to dry air.
That's all, except for waiting.
You can use less silica gel if you can get them mostly clean and mostly dry before you lock them up with the desiccant. At least remove stems and leaves and pod husks.
If you want to get scientific, put a blue-pink humidity-indicating-card inside the jar, facing out so you can read it through the glass.
Or a slip of newsprint. If it is dry, it will be crisp and crackly when you open the jar to feel it.
If it is limp, your seeds are still trying to rot and will if you let them.
Drierite Relative Humidity cards at 40 cents each:
https://secure.drierite.com/ca...
ULINE humidity cards, $50/250 3-spot cards or $70 / 400 6-spot cards
http://www.uline.com/BL_1002/H...
http://www.uline.com/Product/D...
Silica gel desiccant can be bought from a craft store with a flower-drying isle. Maybe $5-$7 for a pound or two.
And you can regenerate silica gel in a stove. Bake a shallow layer at 250 F for several hours. Sealing it back in glass before it sucks up much humidity. 250 F will melt most plastics!
And silica gel is safer than sand - sand is
crystalline silica, which can produce dust that is irritating or even cause silicosis if you manage to breath enough of it.
But silica gel is amorphous silica, which is even safer and less toxic than sand. It is approved by the FDA for use in food and pharmaceutical applications.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...
http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...
http://garden.org/blogs/view/R... (general desiccant info)
Many Kew Royal Botanic GardensTechnical Information Sheets about collecting and storing seeds, written by Millennium Seed Bank staff.
http://www.kew.org/science-con...
post-harvest handling for seed collection:
http://www.kew.org/sites/defau...
"Seed life span approximately doubles for every 10% reduction in seed eRH."
("eRH" is equilibrium Relative Humidity.)
" Once transferred to the seed bank, collections can then be dried to
around 15% eRH (4-7% mc depending on seed oil content),
the recommended moisture level for long-term conservation of orthodox seeds.
("mc" is moisture content , % water by weight.)
collecting seed in the field:
http://www.kew.org/sites/defau...
Stored seed's viable life span approximately doubles for every 10% reduction in seed eRH.
