How to disinfect melon and fruit seeds? Warm water seed soaking is more eco-friendly than using chemicals.
Rice seeds can get a spa treatment to wash away pests and diseases, and now melon and gourd seeds can also take a three-warm soak to get in shape! The Hualien District Agricultural Improvement Station of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, has introduced the "centrifugal melon and gourd seed warm-water disinfection machine." Soaking melon and gourd seeds in warm water disinfects them, not only saving on chemical costs but also reducing environmental pollution - two benefits in one.
Shih Ching-tien also said that buying this machine is buying health; besides complying with organic standards during the period from seed to seedling, it is also more eco-friendly. Traditionally, seeds are disinfected with chemicals before sowing, and during this process not only may the health of the workers handling them be affected, but the wastewater discharged also causes environmental pollution.
The main structure of the centrifugal melon and gourd seed warm-water disinfection machine is a sealable, pressurizable warm-water tank, inside which is a centrifugal rotating drum. Through the structural connections between the warm-water tank and the cold and hot water tanks, vacuum pump, blower, drain pipe, exhaust pipe, temperature control system and microcomputer controller, it can carry out hot-water disinfection, sterilization, dehydration and drying of the melon and gourd seeds inside the centrifugal rotating drum, achieving a complete integrated operation.
This machine is suitable for general seedling growers and seed merchants, costs around 900,000 yuan, and has obtained an invention patent from the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The related technology has now been transferred via a non-exclusive licensing arrangement to "Sanqun Co., Ltd." for commercial mass production and sale. Other agricultural machinery manufacturers who are also interested in producing and selling it are welcome to apply to the Hualien Station for technology transfer.
※ Simultaneously published at Environmental Information Center