[NAFEX] Cleaning pawpaw seeds

Jwlehman at aol.com Jwlehman at aol.com
Tue Sep 28 14:17:13 EDT 2010


In a message dated 9/28/2010 9:41:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
qazingulaza at gmail.com writes:

> Cleaning seeds looks like it'll be quite challenging, I seem to
> remember someone posting that they use some kind of caustic like
> baking soda to get the mucilaginous seed casing off.
> 
> The newest batch of seedlings I'm growing out is a mix of all of John
> Gordon's varieties, so in 8-9 years I'll let you all know if I find
> any more possibilities for the northern tier of pawpaw culture.
> 
I purchased a commercial restaurant blender off Ebay. The grinding blade 
comes off with a screw. I made a blade from a piece of rubber belting about 
3/8 inch thick and carved it like a blade. I have an AC voltage control and 
reduce the AC to about 60 volts. I can load a quart of seed with the 
mucilaginous seed casing on (persimmon or pawpaw) and water then turn the blender on. 
In about 2 minutes the seeds are free of their casings while the seeds are 
in tact. The seeds are heavier than water while the casings tend to float. 
Add more water, simply pour off the casings. Rinsing about twice more and you 
have seed ready to be put to bed in the frig. (stratify).

I'm getting ready to clean about 10 pounds of persimmon seed and casings 
yet this afternoon, having put up 21 pints of pulp last night. Then will do 
the pawpaw seeds from making 2 gallon pawpaw pulp this forenoon. 

Jerry  
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