True potato seed drying over rice

Summary Toasted polished rice with less than 1% moisture content was used as desiccant for potato seed stored in closed jars. To reduce the moisture content of about 20 g of true potato seed from 11.5% to 4–5%, 30 to 40 g of toasted rice is needed depending on how fast drying is desired. For most crops, 5% seed moisture content is considered by the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources as a safe level for storage. Toasted rice was also used with small lots of tomato, pepper, lettuce, turnip and soya bean seeds to dry them to a safe level for storage. Toasted grains of wheat, maize and soya bean were also used successfully as desiccants, but proved to have less drying capacity than rice.