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seeds and breeding

Oven drying seed bombs?

Malek Beitinjan

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posted 3 years ago

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Has anyone ever tried drying seed bombs in the oven? I know that they need to be dried soon after being made so they won't sprout. There's a lot of fog here by the coast, so I can't rely on the sun to dry them out for me. I was thinking I could pop it in the oven at 120 degrees F and keep an eye on it....only downside I foresee is the compost might smell bad!

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Phil Stevens

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posted 3 years ago

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Could work...you'd have the added bonus of stratifying any seeds that require a period of heat before they will germinate (lots of Mediterranean annuals come up in the autumn or winter after summer dormancy). Can't hurt to try.

greg mosser

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posted 3 years ago

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i know they say that foods aren’t raw anymore if they go above 115F. i’d be worried about cooking/killing your seeds.

Malek Beitinjan

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posted 3 years ago

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That's a good point, Greg. I guess the important thing here would be to pull it out before the temperature of each seed bomb reaches that level. The oven also has a warm setting. The big issue with this is I won't know if I killed the seed until some time after I plant the seed balls somewhere!

Nancy Reading

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posted 3 years ago

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I read in another thread a post by Greg Mosser about drying large bean seeds:

You put rice in the oven at 250F to dry it out completely, then let it cool and mix your seeds that you're trying to dry in the rice. If you're humidity is super high you can pour the hot rice into large jar to keep it from absorbing moisture while it cools if you like. This way you separate the water removal heat step from your precocious seeds.

I guess it would be slow, but maybe safer. Or a combination, short time in oven to dry surface, then in with dry rice, and repeat.... it probably depends on the size of the balls (fnaar!....oops sorry).

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