#seed storage

[tomorrowsgardennc]

PSA: if you're storing large batches of seeds in glass jars:

🚨 DO NOT PUT AN AIR TIGHT LID ON THE JAR 🚨

if even one atom of moisture is in there, it could get trapped and mold and ruin an entire jar of seeds. or moisture could condense inside if it gets too warm. or or if it ends up too hot or you're silly and put it in the sun, they will cook and therefore no longer germinate.

either no lid, or fabric with elastic or rubber band to hold it in place.

[yeetmeoffearth]

December 25 🎄

The plant related gifts I got, I'm very lucky

Can't wait to fill these pots, and I've already transferred all my seeds from a horrible giant envelope system to this cool seed organizer

I hope you are all having a happy holiday ☃️

[othala-homestead]

These October Beans we got at the Farmers Market recently had originally been intended for our dinner- mostly out of curiosity as they were new to my husband and myself. Unfortunately, we had left them to sit a little too long and they got damp and up and sprouted on us! Looks like we're going to have to get them into the dirt, I think they are too far gone to dry out at this point. Still, look how beautifully colored they are 🧡

[besprent-garden]

Found this cute little accordion-file box thingie in my closet that works great for seed sorting!

[goingtiny]

The doomsday vault built to store every known crop on the planet is becoming more crucial than ever — and it may get a big upgrade

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault could come to humanity's rescue. To keep its valuable resources safe, Norway is spending close to $13 million to upgrade it.

The vault was officially opened in 2008, and originally cost about $9 million. But given its increasingly important role amid mounting climate change threats, the Norwegian government wants to upgrade the facilities. Several days ago, the government announced an overhaul that they plan to begin shortly, which will involve spending 100 million Norwegian Krone ($12,779,000) to seriously beef up the vault.

For one, the vault has already been needed. In 2015, Syria's ICARDA seed bank withdrew samples from the vault — a first — so it could restore its collection after sustaining damage during war. It's fortunate that Svalbard had the seeds that were needed. ICARDA returned the samples to the vault in 2017.

Last year, it was also discovered that the seed bank is more vulnerable than it might seem. The vault is buried in permafrost in a mountain on an isolated island in the northernmost place in the world that has scheduled flights. More polar bears than people wander around outside. The five doors are only opened for deposits, when seeds are carried down the long tunnel to a chamber kept at -18 degrees Celsius. It's supposed to stay frozen for 200 years, even if the power goes out.

But in May of 2017, melting permafrost caused caused a glacier-like flow of water to freeze inside the tunnel. Though permafrost is by definition supposed to stay frozen, it didn't. (Right now, the Arctic is experiencing record warmth for winter.)

Luckily, the water didn't reach the main chamber and workers were able to remove the ice. But the new upgrades would provide additional backups.

[badgersgarden]

Current mood: witchy af.

[oaresearchpaper]

Viability of kithul (Caryota urens L.) seeds with storage time

There is a myth among the farmers that Kithul seeds, only dropped by birds and small mammals with their excretion, germinate. The main reason for this myth is the inherent difficulty of germination in Kithul seeds with storage time. Many experiments proved a high percentage of seed germination when the seeds are sowed soon after separating from fresh fruits. In this study, an attempt is made to model the viability of the seeds with the storage time of the seeds. Two types of Kithul seeds were collected and stored for different periods and tested for germination. The findings revealed that there is no dormant period for Kithul seeds and viability continuously decreases with time according to a model fitted for the probit of the germination probability. This fitted model contains the constants: the probit of the initial probability of germination and , a specific constant for Kithul found as 2.90. Although this equation provided a better fit, the terms for the environmental temperature and seed moisture content are to be introduced for further improvement.

[oaresearchpaper]

Seed Storage Impact on Germination and Survival of Syzygium polycephaloides

Abstract

S. polycephaloides or lipote is native in the Philippines that needs protection and conservation due to its usefulness and is considered as vulnerable and endangered. However, no studies were conducted about the effect of seed storage in germination and survival of S. polycephaloides. The study aimed to address this gap and study the impact of different duration of seed storage on the percent germination, percent germinative energy and percent survival of S. polycephaloides. Single mother tree of lipote served as seed source and collected four times with 10 days interval (T0 – 0 day storage), (T1 – 10 days storage) (T2 – 20 days storage) (T3 – 30 days storage) and sown it simultaneously. One-way ANOVA and Duncan Multiple Range Test post hoc analysis were used to assess the difference among treatments in terms of germination and percent survival indicators. Analysis on the seed storage revealed that there is a significant difference among treatments applied to S. polycephaloides seeds in terms of percent germination and percent survival. Specifically, S. polycephaloides seeds under T2 (20 days of storage) had the highest germination percentage of 93.12% followed by T3 (30 days storage) with 92.5%, T1 (10 days storage) with 81.8%, and T0 (control) with 78.13%. S. polycephaloides seeds under T3 (30 days storage) obtained the highest percent survival of 98.57% compared to T2 (20 days storage), T0 (control), and T1 (10 days storage) obtained 97.27%, 89.65%, and 87.04%, respectively. Both T2 and T3 are significantly higher as compared to the control (T0) (p<.049). Longer storage of seeds appeared to improved germination of S. polycephaloides. The results can be served as basis for future reforestation project and future researches aiming to improve the seed physiological condition of S. polycephaloides under seed storage.

Introduction

Today, the demand of functional food has increase significantly in recent years. Functional foods are ones that offer advantages to health beyond merely meeting nutritional needs. They contain physiologically active ingredients that aid in lowering chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses.

Syzygium polycephaloides is indigenous to the Philippines. Its berry can be juiced and turned into wine or eaten ripe and raw. The antioxidant content of S. polycephaloides is similar to vitamin E (Santiago et al., 2007). In local communities, indigenous fruit trees are important because it serves as food, nutrition and income. However, out of 300 edible fruit tree species in the Philippines only few are cultivated commercially and many others are still remaining underutilized (Dulay et al., 2022).

Storage of seeds helps to preserve its viability because there is a period of time between planting and harvesting. Some of the farmers, researchers, plantation owners used seed storage to recalcitrant, intermediate and orthodox seeds for the purpose of maintaining the seed in good physical and physiological condition from the time they are harvested until the time they are planted. Many Syzygium species like S. cuminii, S. jambos and S. polycephaloides are considered recalcitrant to intermediate seeds wherein these seeds are sensitive to drying and can be kept for several months in low temperature (Abbas et al., 2003).

According to Sultana et al. (2016), there are some various elements that influence seed quality that includes temperature, insects, and all other biotic and abiotic components. Seed stored in low temperature germinate higher compared to the seeds stored in high temperature since high temperature increase the respiration rate and enzymes activity resulting the overhaul of food reserves before the seeds germinate that leads to seed decrease vigor and physical quality seed (Mbofung, 2012). Lack of availability of quality seeds leads to a decline in production due to low percent germination, poor development of seedlings and reduce adaptation in the field (Jyoti and Malik, 2013). Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the percent germination, percent germinative energy and percent survival of S. polycephaloides as affected by different seed storage duration.

Source : Germination and survival of Syzygium polycephaloides (C. B. Rob.) Merr. (Myrtaceae) under varying seed storage duration