On Sun, 25 Sep 1999, Vikki <vikbill@gibralter.net> wrote: > I've dried out seeds from my jalapenos and super chilis. What do I > store them in until next spring? I'm in the southeast so it's humid > here and I want to make sure they stay dry and intact. Tips on Saving, Drying, and Storing Chile Seeds Select chiles that are ripe, fully colored and show no signs of disease. When cleaning large-fruited chiles, break or cut the flesh off without damaging the internal core. The stem should be left attached to the core and will act as a handle. The blade of a small knife can be used to carefully scrape the seeds into a bowl. Chiles can also be cleaned in a blender or food processor, if the flesh is not going to be eaten. Cut the stems off the fleshless seed cores, adding enough water to cover the cores. Blend until the cores disintegrate and the seeds are free.Gently stir the mixture and the good seeds will sink to the bottom. The immature seeds and flesh fragments will float and can be pored off with part of the water. Add more water, blend the mixture, pour off more debris, and repeat until clean. Small chiles can also be cleaned using a blender or food processor. Cut off the stems and a little bit of their shoulders, before putting the pods and water into the blender. Always wear rubber gloves when working with hot chiles. Chile oil is very pungent and will remain on unprotected fingers even after washing. Touching any area of the face with hands that contain chile oil residue can cause extreme discomfort. Also, be sure to clean chiles in a well-ventilated room, because the fumes can cause severe respiratory distress. After all the debris has been poured off, dump the remaining water and clean seeds into a strainer. Wipe the bottom of the strainer on a towel and dump the seeds onto a dish or cookie sheet to dry Pepper seeds should be dried away from direct sunlight, until they seeds break when folded. If the seeds bend instead of breaking, additional drying is necessary Additional Drying Containers used for seed storage should always be airtight. Glass and metal are the only common materials that are completely moisture-proof. Glass jars with good rubber seals under their lids, such as baby food jars or canning jars with new lids, provide a nearly airtight seal when screwed on really tight. Gallon glass jars that do not have a common-sized canning lid can be modified into excellent storage containers by cutting gaskets for their lids out of used automobile inner tubes. Lightweight plastic bags are not moisture-proof and make poor storage containers. However, seeds can be put into such bags before being stored inside a large, airtight jar. Color-indicating silica-gel is an excellent desiccant (moisture absorbing material) for drying seeds. By comparison, powdered milk is less than 10% as effective as a drying agent. Silica gel, which looks like little plastic beads, is often treated with cobalt chloride which indicates how much moisture has been absorbed. The beads are deep blue when completely dry, but gradually change to light pink as moisture is absorbed. Silica gel should be stored in an airtight container to keep the material dry until it is needed. The drying process requires a glass jar with an airtight lid, at least half a pound (1/4 kilo) of good desiccant such as color-indicating silica gel, and the seeds. Each sample of seeds should be placed in a paper packet and carefully labeled. Determine the total weight of the seeds and packets, and then measure out an equal weight of dark blue silica gel. Place both the packets and silica gel into the jar and screw the lid on tightly. The silica gel will immediately start absorbing moisture from the seeds. After seven or eight days, open the jar and separate the packets of seed from the silica gel. The seed packets are then stored in another moisture-proof container without silica gel in order to maintain the low moisture content of the seeds. The second container should be another glass jar or any similar moisture-proof container. Thoroughly dry seeds reabsorb moisture quickly, so always try to minimize the time the seed packets are exposed to the moisture in the air while being shifted to the second container. The very best place to store an airtight container of THOROUGHLY dried (less than 8%) seeds is in a freezer. The next best place is in a refrigerator, followed by any cool area where the temperature fluctuates as little as possible. When retrieving seeds from frozen storage, ALWAYS allow the sealed jar to reach room temperature before opening. Let the jar set out overnight, whenever there is sufficient time. If the jar is opened before the seeds reach room temperature, moisture will condense on the cold seeds and rehydrate them. Also try to limit the number of times seeds are retrieved from the jar, because temperature fluctuations gradually reduce the viability of the seeds. When removing seeds from storage that have been dried to low moisture levels, expose the seeds to the air for a few days before planting, if time allows. This will let the seeds slowly pick up some moisture, instead of going immediately from low moisture to a very moist planting environment. If you would like to save the seeds of other vegetables, the best reference source is a book called Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. If you can't find this locally, you can order this book now from Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com), the Internet's largest bookstore. Information above from The Seed Savers Exchange (3076 North Winn Road, Decorah, Iowa 52101; tel. 319-382-5990, FAX 319-382-5872). They are the publishers of the book _Seed to Seed_ (ISBN 0-9613977-7-2). The book _Seed to Seed_ by Suzanne Ashworth is called _Saatgutewinnung im Hausgarten_ in German. Sources for silica gel I got my silica gel from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (P.O. Box 170, Earlysville, VA 22936; http://www.southernexposure.com/). NOTE: I'm not affiliated with them, just a very-satisfied long-time customer. I THINK Abundant Life Seed Foundation (PO Box 772, Port Townsend, WA 98368) sells it and I'm sure Territorial Seeds (PO Box 157, 20 Palmer Ave., Cottage Grove, OR 97424) does. Their combination catalog/garden guide is $2.00 and might be free from their website. The catalog/garden guide, IMHO, is well worth the money. Two pages in the catalog are devoted to seed saving supplies. Silica gel is available as follows (in the 1999 catalog): #85-113-A 1 ounce $2.80 (Packed in Seed Saver Vial) #85-113-B 3 ounces $5.10 (Packed in Large Seed Saver Vial) #85-113-C 1 pound $11.95 #85-113-D 5 pounds $49.90 #85-113-W 5 pounds $51.90 shipped west of the mississippi #85-113-N 5 pounds $61.90 shipped to Canada #85-113-D 30 pounds $245.00 (48 states only) Five pounds of silica gel beads (each bead is about the size & shape of a capital `O') fill 3 3/4 quart jars, so one pound is probably enough. Besides, " ... silica gel can be reactivated indefinitely by drying eight hours in a 200-degree F. oven. Batches weighing over a pound should be stirred occasionally to speed up the drying process. Always dry silica gel slowly, because temperatures that are too high can scorch and ruin it, turning the beads black. Silica gel can also be easily dried in a microwave which works on the moisture in the material. It only takes about 25 minutes to dry an 8" x 12" glass dish that is filled with silica gel to a depth of 1.5-2". Progress can be checked by watching through the glass door of the microwave as the silica gel changes from pink to deep blue. Whichever drying method is used, the silica gel is then stored in an airtight container to keep the material dry until it is needed ..." Color-indicating silica gel is also available from large craft shops, sold for drying flowers. Unfortunately, it's sold in the form of very fine powder and, in my experience, is a royal pain to use. ==================================================================== Bob Batson L 39 12 14 N 94 33 16 W bob@sky.net Kansas City TCS - Mystic Fire Priest USDA zone 5b