Seed Flashcards
“Seed as it comes from the field is almost never pure.” explain!
Seed as it comes from the field is almost never pure. It usually arrives at the cleaning plant containing large quantities of trash, leaves, weed segments, other crop seeds, and insects. If it contains such materials as green leaves and other high-moisture materials, it cannot be safely stored, efficiently handled, nor accurately cleaned until most of the foreign material has been removed. The process of removing these unwanted materials from a seed lot, along with overall improvement of seed quality, is known as seed conditioning.
The process of removing these unwanted materials from a seed lot, along with overall improvement of seed quality, is known as?
Seed Conditioning
It is a vital part of the total technology involved in making available high quality seed of improved varieties. It assures farmers of high-quality seed with minimum adulteration.
Seed Conditioning
PRINCIPLES OF SEED CONDITIONING
The seed conditioner has FIVE objectives when cleaning seed:
(1) complete separation
(2) minimization of seed loss
(3) upgrading
(4) efficiency
(5) minimization of labor
PRINCIPLES OF SEED CONDITIONING
Removal of all contamination, damage seeds, and other unwanted materials.
complete separation
PRINCIPLES OF SEED CONDITIONING
Some good seeds are removed along with contaminants in almost every conditioning operation and this loss must be kept at a minimum.
minimization of seed loss
PRINCIPLES OF SEED CONDITIONING
Improvement of seed quality through removal of decayed, cracked, broken, insect-damaged, or otherwise injured or low quality seed,
upgrading
PRINCIPLES OF SEED CONDITIONING
The highest capacity consistent with effectiveness of separation.
efficiency
PRINCIPLES OF SEED CONDITIONING
Labor is a direct operating cost and cannot be recovered.
minimization of labor
The ultimate goal of seed conditioning is?
To obtain the maximum percentage of pure crop seed with maximum germination potential.
The quality of seed is improved during conditioning in two ways:
- separation of contaminating seeds of other crops, weeds, and inert matter, and
- upgrading, or the elimination of poor-quality seed
Seeds can be separated by mechanical means only if they differ in some physical characteristic that can be detected by a
mechanical or electrical process.
Physical characteristics that are used to separate seeds include:
size,
length,
width,
thickness,
shape,
weight (specific gravity)
surface texture,
color,
affinity for liquids, and
electrical properties.
It is a pre-cleaning equipment and the most commonly used pre-cleaning machine. Rough clean various kinds of trash from the seed lot. Light particles removed -chaff, stem. Small and big particles removed. Normally much higher output than fine cleaning
Scalper
Before air screen cleaner
Optional- it can be bypassed
To break up the seed clusters of chaffy grasses
Seed flows much better in rest of cleaning process
De Bearding/De Awner
Remove unwanted seeds
Depending on species
Hand Picking
Hand sieves with fan or wind
Investment is minimum
Time consuming
Manual Basic Cleaning
Basic seed-cleaning machine in most conditioning plants
Separate seed on the basis of size, specific gravity, and resistance to airflow
Has many sizes
Two-screen farm models
Large industrial cleaners with seven or eight screens and three or four air separations.
Air Screen Cleaner
Best machine for upgrading seed quality
Remove undesirable seed and inert contamination that are so similar to the crop.
Remove deteriorated, moldy or decayed seed which are usually similar in size but have a lower specific gravity.
Gravity Separator
Several types of seed conditioning machines separate or upgrade seeds on the basis of thickness, length, or width.
Length Separator
Width and thickness separator
Texture separator
Spiral separator
Color separator
Dimensional sizing equipment
Separates by length
Particularly useful for removing broken seeds
You can remove short from long and vice versa
Indented Cylinder
Separates by roughness of surface
Also called dodder mill- effective in removing dodder from alfalfa
Remove rough textured seeds from smooth-textured seeds
Rough seeds are separated by their tendency to cling to the velvet-covered rolls.
Roll Machine/Velvet roll
Originally design for removing broken seeds in soy bean
Most expensive and sophisticated equipment
Separate by color or light reflection
Light bulb reads the color of seed, air flow separates them
High precision
New versions have digital analysis or x ray to see embryo.
Color Sorting Machine
