Saving seed by flotation in water
 

Last September,I started to collect some lettuce seed and separate the
seed from the chaff by using sieves.It did not work very well after
several separations,but then remembered that I had read that one
method is to put the seed into a glass of water-the good seed falls to
the bottom,whereas the rubbish floats on the top.It seemed to
work,although the amount of good seed was probably only 20% of the
total.However I removed the rubbish from the liquid surface,and
recovered the 'good' seeds from the bottom.I put them on a plate and
dried them as quickly as possibly-probably took till the following
day.I worried of course whether the dampness over a period of a twelve
hours would affect their subsequent germination.

I have now sown two varieties of lettuce seed last month and can
report that I have achieved 100% (or as near as I can judge)
germination.So sorting seed using flotation works!
Cheers,Michael

Saving seed by flotation in water
 

michael wrote:

I have now sown two varieties of lettuce seed last month and can
report that I have achieved 100% (or as near as I can judge)
germination.So sorting seed using flotation works!

I do this with brassica and onion/leek seeds and it works well. I dry them
by spreading out in a kitchen sieve suspended in one of those plastic
crate storage boxes with a small fan blowing on it; gets the seeds dry much
faster.
A set of screens with various mesh sizes is also a big help.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G