Another seed saving site... with silica jell!

[istanbulin]

Regular wood charcoal is a good desiccant when dehydrated. For dehydration it's enough to expose it direct sunlight for 3-4 hours or dehydrate it in an oven up to 110 °C. There's an equilibrium between RH and m.c. of the seeds. When the RH is about 15% the m.c. of the seeds are about 5%, this is a safe m.c. for storing seeds. For measuring the RH the best way is using a hygrometer. You don't have to buy a laboratory level hygrometer, regular ones are working good when calibrated. BTW, calibration of a hygrometer is not difficult, it's really easy.

 

[BarG]

Do you put dried wood charcoal in seeds and remove before storage I suppose and if so for how long. I have been sealing in a baggie and leaving in a drawer in cool part of house.

 

[istanbulin]

Putting charcoal directly into the seeds is not the best way. You may build a home made desiccator with plastic containers or with glass jars. I'm putting a drawing of a regular desiccator here.

They used calcium chloride here but you may put there some charcoal (in medium size). Put your seeds in a cloth bag and put these bags on the perforated mesh and also put a hygrometer near the bags and close the lid. When hygrometer says that the RH is about 15% remove the seed bags from the desiccator and put your seeds in your storage container (like plastic bags etc.) and store them in a cool and dark place. That's all !

 

[BarG]

Fantastic! Keep it simple stupid, just the way I like it!

 

[johnlee1933]

Putting charcoal directly into the seeds is not the best way. You may build a home made desiccator with plastic containers or with glass jars. I'm putting a drawing of a regular desiccator here.


They used calcium chloride here but you may put there some charcoal (in medium size). Put your seeds in a cloth bag and put these bags on the perforated mesh and also put a hygrometer near the bags and close the lid. When hygrometer says that the RH is about 15% remove the seed bags from the desiccator and put your seeds in your storage container (like plastic bags etc.) and store them in a cool and dark place. That's all !

I can't remember the last time I used one of these in the lab but you are absolutely right.
They work fine. The ones I used were Pyrex and had ground mating surfaces. My problem is finding an accurate hygrometer at a price I can afford. I am used to the lab quality and they are way beyond my pocket book now.

 

[Knucklehead]

John - I bought this indoor / outdoor thermometer/hygrometer with wireless probe. Being wireless, you can seal the probe in the container. It will also be great for curing as you can stash the probe right in amongst your curing leaf. Good price, free shipping. http://www.amazon.com/TM005X-M-Wire...540&sr=8-2&keywords=indoor/outdoor+hygrometer

 

[johnlee1933]

John - I bought this indoor / outdoor thermometer/hygrometer with wireless probe. Being wireless, you can seal the probe in the container. It will also be great for curing as you can stash the probe right in amongst your curing leaf. Good price, free shipping. http://www.amazon.com/TM005X-M-Wire...540&sr=8-2&keywords=indoor/outdoor+hygrometer

Do you have any feeling for accuracy? I bought three a few years back and side by side they measured as much as 15% different. Do you have more than one? Have y ou done a side by sice comparison?

 

[istanbulin]

Ok, there's very simple way to learn if the hygrometer is accurate or not. Get a coffee cup, put 1/2 cup of table salt in it and add 1/4 cup of water. Put the coffee cup into a ziplock plastic bag with the hygrometer and wait for at least 2 hours. The RH in the plastic bag is 75% so your hygrometer should show this value. If it shows (for example) 78%, then it would be needed to set behind by 3 percentage points (calibration).

 

[johnlee1933]

Ok, there's very simple way to learn if the hygrometer is accurate or not. Get a coffee cup, put 1/2 cup of table salt in it and add 1/4 cup of water. Put the coffee cup into a ziplock plastic bag with the hygrometer and wait for at least 2 hours. The RH in the plastic bag is 75% so your hygrometer should show this value. If it shows (for example) 78%, then it would be needed to set behind by 3 percentage points (calibration).

Thanks Emre, I knew that. Just clean forgot my high school science.

 

[Knucklehead]

I haven't taken it out of the box, but I'll do that real soon and check the calibration. Thanks guys.

 

[darren1979]

Has anyone tried using the wet weight/dry weight conversion on tobacco seeds. i know it works with corn and grain just not sure about baccy seeds

 

[deluxestogie]

The containers in which most of us store tobacco seed outweighs the seed itself by a factor of 10 to 100. So the seed would have to be weighed outside of its container. Using weight to determine moisture content would require a precision laboratory balance.

Bob

 

[darren1979]

Thank you Bob, i have a digital scale that weighs in 0.01 of a gram but im geussing the water content of a tobacco seed to be so small were talking hundredth of a gram.

 

[Knucklehead]

A good seed saving book is Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. Nothing on tobacco, but a lot of the same principles apply.