STATIONARY DRYING OF CORN SEEDS WITH RADIAL FLOWING AIR DISTRIBUTION. I. PHYSIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF SEEDS

CLÁUDIO CAVARIANI, WALTER RODRIGUES DA SILVA, LUIZ CARLOS MIRANDA, JOÃO NAKAGAWA E DANIELLA CÔRTES BELGIORNO

 

The purpose of the research was to study the influence of different combinations of air flows (18,6, 20,3 and 24,7m3/min./t) and temperatures (40, 44 and 48°C) on corn seeds submitted to a stationary drying process with radial air distribution after different periods of time and seed position in a seed mass 61,5cm depth. Physiological seed quality was evaluated after drying and also after a period of six months storage. It was concluded that seed quality was not influencied by drying period or seed position in the seed mass. For air temperatures of 40 and 44°C an increasing of air flowing caused seed damage, but at 48°C differences were not noticed. For 18,6 and 20,3m3/min./t of drying air flowing the utilization of the lowest temperature (40°C) promoted the best seed quality, but with 24,6m3/min./t the best was 48°C. The best seed quality was obtained by simultaneously increasing or decreasing both studied factors.



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