Any resources or suggestions on how to clean small seeds? I have probably 1 or 2 pounds of Japanese Indigo to clean. Been breaking the seed flower heads into a bowl and rubbing a bunch in my hands to release seeds. I get a lot of seeds and chaff that are near the same weight, so winnowing is difficult. Anyone else clean indigo seed well?
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I don’t even know what it is, but maybe one sinks better than the other in water.
I think for some things with super fine seed and super fine chaff… I’d just call it seed and filler for easy spreading lol. Like how people put sand and carrot seeds.
And of course if it’s just for your own use or trading around then it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you’re selling to a distributor, probably have to figure it out. Unfortunately I don’t know what that would be.
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Is it the kind of thing where if you put it in a container and shake it around enough the smaller bits (I assume that would mostly be the seeds - likely a little also denser) would gradually shift to the bottoms and the larger bits would “float” to the top (presumably that’s mostly the chaff)?
There is a technical word for this concept used in physics and in fields like shipping… and cereal packaging lol. But it escapes me at the moment.
Try a strainer or some wire mesh with really fine holes. A lot of the chaff will stay on top, making it easier to clean the rest (perhaps by winnowing?).
I screen and winnow tiny seeds in the same manner as larger seeds. I use low wind-speed, and watch carefully where the seed falls in relation to the catch bucket.
With some species it makes things much easier if I shake the whole plants to release seeds, rather than threshing.