Best way to dry seeds?
So I intend to participate in this years seed exchange. Ive just made my account and now I need to know how I should prepare and package my seeds. So, like, how do yall dry your seeds fresh from peppers to prepare them for packaging?
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I am pretty new to this an maybe this is wrong, but I air dry my seeds. I harvest from the fruit and then I just separate them on a plate and then put them in cool dark place for about 2 weeks to dry. I shuffle them about a week into the process. After that I put them in labeled baggies.
Stacks of paper towels, paper plates, newspapers - anything like that can be used to stack up larger amounts of seeds. If paper, also help serve to absorb some moisture. This can be a blessing and a curse.
Be aware of humidity and moisture, especially moisture and wet seeds such as any of the frutescenes or a juicy baccatum where the walls were damaged. Too wet and the paper substrate will absorb it all and just become a layered soggy lasagna mess.
Mold will take place if stacked too tall, I've had it happen even in my drying room with 30% relative humidity and air flow. A huge waste.
Adding a little bit of heat can be helpful. Or if you do have a huge amount of damper seeds, resting them on top of a warm surface ( in a dry environment) will help a lot. Think: top of a metal food dehydrator, or a germination heat mat (As long as the temperature is controlled or a buffer is present to prevent temperatures from getting too hot - anything in the over 100 range starts to make me nervous in terms of too quickly shocking the seeds.. purely anecdotal. Based on science, it's that 130 to 140 Fahrenheit range that causes problems... I just like to be conservative about it.
Just put them on a plate with a sheet of kitchen roll underneath, keep them somewhere dark but well ventilated
Plate yes, but the kitchen roll is annoying because the seeds end up sticking to it. The bare plate wotks better
It's easy enough to remove them in my experience, and better than the seeds going mouldy/squishy on the underside because the plate kept them wet.
You can even just plant them with some paper stuck to it. They won't care.
This might sound stupid, but is kitchen roll a regional thing? Like I'm having a hard time thinking about how bread is good for drying seeds.
Haha I guess it might be a UK thing. You know the rolls of paper you get for the kitchen? Like a toilet roll but bigger and stronger.
I put them on a paper plate and cover it with a paper towel. Make sure after a while to loosen any seeds that stick on the plate or towel. After a few days dry seeds. I've done this plenty of times and usually most seeds sprout with out a problem.
Paper plate that's been labeled. Added details if it's a newly acquired seed pod or fruit.
I wash them, then put them on a plate under the ceiling fan over the dining room table. Every time I walk by I give them a mix.
I would not package them now. I put them all in a bag with a moisture absorber until March or so. Then package them.
If I only have 1-5 fruit, or I want the absolute best quality and presentation, I will cut peppers open and let them dry for a week and then rub the seeds off.
Usually I throw all my peppers in a blender with some water and shred them, followed by winnowing the pulp from the seeds using a bowl and water. This method is potentially a little wasteful/lossy but it just depends how many peppers you have and how many seeds you need.
I always dry seed on waxed paper plates or in half of a glass Petri dish. I reuse the same plates many many times.
Once fully dry I package them in 1x2.5" plastic zip bags and label with printable labels.
Question, if you cut the peppers and let them dry a week or so, what if the seeds turn brown on the fruit? Are they bad? Unusable ?
If they turn brown and paper thin they were immature when harvested. If the pepper was really old, and the seeds were brown but normal thickness they are probably fermented/rotten.