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Dehydration question

smileyguy697

smileyguy697

I know the first thing one of you is gonna say is this isn't a growing question, wrong spot to post bla, bla.. But I'm not trying to just dehydrate.

Every year I isolate my favorite plants and want to do something different along the lines of what I've heard someone else does here but I don't remember who it was or where I saw it. Anyhow they dehydrated their pods, put em in a sack,and beat it off the wall to extract the seeds. So the plan is to dehydrate the isolated pods on a low setting and follow their lead.

Now here's my question. I'm wondering if anyone knows what the max temperature is that seeds start becoming unviable?

The new dehydrator I have is one of the computer controlled ones that I can adjust the temp and time. Lowest setting is 104 degrees and I'm curious if that will be to warm and kill them. I highly doubt it cause temps reach that high here sometimes and its never killed seeds in pods whilst growing. But I want to see what some of you guys think..

Thanks
Mike
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
I try to stay at 95 roughly, 104 will most likely be fine. I suggest slicing the pods in 1/2, drying them and harvesting the seeds.
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Thanks dude!.. I have a bunch of moa, tfm and goats drying right now for powder and gonna try and germinate some of the seeds once they are done. Just didn't know if 104 would be too hot and if I was wasting my time. If so I was crank it up a bit..
 
I wouldn't crank up the heat at all as I believe your right around that point of killing off the seeds so to say. Believe the highest is 112 but not preferred to save seeds
 
I wouldn't use a dehydrator at all. Just the opposite. Instead of shortening the drying time, I increase it.  With gloves, I cut the seeds out and put them in a small cardboard box.  Once a day, I flip and giggle the things so they dry evenly. I have met folk who do the same with paper lunch bags and shake each day.

Maybe you can use a dehydrator to speed things up.  I just don't see much benefit.
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
For Chinense, dehydrator is the best method, many with high levels of oil will mold even with good air flow...
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Confused, various studies I have read state that capsaicinoids are anti fungal.  I have always assumed people were right about the oil containing.capsaicinoids
 
On dehydrating seeds: my bad experiences with dehydrating seed is probably for going too dry.  Hot water seed treatment to help eliminate pathogens is between 115 and 125.  So I can not imagine the heat of a dehydrator damaging the seeds.  I think my bad experiences have been from over drying.

What you said about oils has me a bit confused.

 
 
ajdrew said:
 
Confused, various studies I have read state that capsaicinoids are anti fungal.  I have always assumed people were right about the oil containing.capsaicinoids
 
On dehydrating seeds: my bad experiences with dehydrating seed is probably for going too dry.  Hot water seed treatment to help eliminate pathogens is between 115 and 125.  So I can not imagine the heat of a dehydrator damaging the seeds.  I think my bad experiences have been from over drying.

What you said about oils has me a bit confused.

 
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I've had plates full of seeds stacked on top of each other and they molded fast. My fault likely cause of no fan and they were stacked but lesson learned.
 
smileyguy697 said:
I've had plates full of seeds stacked on top of each other and they molded fast. My fault likely cause of no fan and they were stacked but lesson learned.
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Yes, definitely see that happening with no circulation.  Also thinking on the temp. in my home.  We do not have central air conditioning.
 
ajdrew said:
 
Confused, various studies I have read state that capsaicinoids are anti fungal.  I have always assumed people were right about the oil containing.capsaicinoids
 
On dehydrating seeds: my bad experiences with dehydrating seed is probably for going too dry.  Hot water seed treatment to help eliminate pathogens is between 115 and 125.  So I can not imagine the heat of a dehydrator damaging the seeds.  I think my bad experiences have been from over drying.

What you said about oils has me a bit confused.

 
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High oil makes it dry slower giving it more of a chance to mold, really kind of simple. 
The same can be said for thick walled pods
 
My method's simple and learned it reading on here somewhere, wouldn't apply for large quantities though. I just cut the meat off and leave the placental mass of seeds, throw them on a paper towel on a paper plate, set them on top of the fridge for a couple weeks. Once their dry, I crumble them up and store them in home made paper envelopes. The two years I've been doing it this way I've had extremely high germination rates the next season.
 
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