Seed Cleaning

[philagardener]

Here's a great set of plans for a DIY seed cleaner: www.realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html

(They also have a great variety list for those of you in the EU.)

[philagardener]

And templeton made a nice looking battery powered one that is a bit smaller: alanbishop.proboards.com/thread/8697/portable-12-volt-seed-winnower

[dave]

For threshing I use a device I built using the plans here: members.efn.org/~itech/
It actually works very well for a wide variety of food crops. If you live near Salem Oregon come and look at mine, or even use it for this batch.

I bought an old Clipper 2B a few years ago and started to rebuild it, but realized it's just too big for what I do. Whats model do you have?

Dave

[templeton]

A couple of ideas - have a look at my motorcycle battery powered computer fan seed cleaner that philagardener linked above - or search on youtube for a couple of diferent vids - it was way easier to build than the real seeds one, but less volume, and less efficient - you could make one in an evening with thick cardboard and duct tape - there are a few like this on youtube. Next time i would use wider timber and make it larger capacity and use a normal 100mm computer fan.
I also use a ridged/grooved non-slip rubber mat with about 3 mm ridges on it for de-husking allium seed. Its about the size of a double sheet of office paper, glued to a bit of ply, on an incline, and i just use heavy rubber gloves to rub the seed capsules up and down the board.

An alternative to a big rubber sheet is to use soft rubber shoes to do the stomping. my video features highly fashionable two-tone EVA clogs - NOT Crocs mind you - you know about the holes in Crocs? That's where your dignity leaks out...
T

[prairiegardens]

Prairie Garden Seeds (not affiliated with me in any way unfortunately) have on the front cover of their catalog a photo of three people stomping away in what looks like about 50 gallon sheep watering tanks. They don't say anything about any of it.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I often use a piece of canvas laid on dirt/lawn. I don't have any trouble with crushing seeds when I use that. I might dance on it, I might wrap the canvas up burrito style and beat it with a piece of PVC pipe.

I use a threshing box, which is a wooden box big enough to stand in, with lathes across the bottom. I dance on seeds/pods in the box. Often barefoot, sometimes with shoes. Sometimes I put on gloves, and scrub the pods across the lathes. The box is more aggressive than the canvas, so I'm more likely to damage seeds. I might use the end of a 2x4 board to crush particularly difficult seeds.

I use 2x4 boards in buckets.

One thing I used to have, but don't any more was a 1/2 inch steel mesh coated in vinyl. I'd lay it on a table, and lay seeds on top of it, which I threshed with an old shoe. The seeds would fall down during threshing to minimize damage. That worked to dehull a wheat I was working with.

One thing that I am getting more and more careful about, is that if I don't harvest and thresh weed seeds, or dirt, then I don't have to remove them from the seeds later on. Saves a ton of work.

I do the crude winnnowings in the field with ambient air.. .

I love colanders and screens!!!!






11

[philagardener]

Sounds Joyous! 

[12540dumont]

I love those non crocs....templeton! Make me one of those cool machines.

Looking for seed screens? Bountiful Gardens sells an inexpensive set that fit over a 5 gallon bucket. I'm cleaning seed today...yuck. And I just broke the big fan, so now onto the smaller fan. I do not stomp seeds. No no, light dancing is preferred. Got kids? Now we're talking. Rent some for the day. I have a box with a drawer. The top of the box is stainless steel food grade screen. I use a rubber wedge to rub on the screen, everything falls in the drawer and then I winnow. Walk posted a really good photo of the whole thing. Somewhere here, I have a photo of my drawer contraption. Look in the wayback machine.

also for you farmers out there: asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/rr/education-and-outreach/itech-appropriate-technology-for-small-and-subsistence-farms/itech-appropriate-technology-for-small-and-subsistence-farms

[richardw]

I use water a lot to float off chaff and hollow seed, carrots, radishes and any other round seed works well with this system, only beets-chard and parsnip cant be done like this.

[templeton]

I've used water for alliums with success. gets all the really difficult to remove capsules out.

[richardw]

I like using water for lettuce seed because there's none of the horrible dust you get when winnowing, great also with any from the apiaceae family, though carrots its best to rub them well to remove the spikes on the seed otherwise they float.

[rowan]

Here is a good seed cleaning video on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGlHMP8JixY&index=7&list=PLPam5xq9LsmrCV6hEFefnuSOMHxq3alZV

[richardw]

Water cleaning is fine if you chose the right days to do so, once the seed is done you gota get it spread out to dry as fast as ya can, i like the days when the föhn wind from the mountains blows, it can get as low as 15% humidity, also not in direct sunlight if the day is too warm, dont want to cook the seed.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I love cleaning seed with water. Just gotta spread the seed out so that it dries immediately. The guy that introduced me to the method said, "It's no different than an afternoon rain shower".