BP Singh

60 R.K. Saxenait uniformly. Sufficient quantity of water is added to aluminiumor plastic dishes (containers) filled with the sterilized sand andseeds are sown in rows on top of the sand and then covered with10-20 mm loose sand. The dish is covered with flat plate, andplaced in the germinator. The dish is labelled with properaccession number. Those accessions having more than 85 per centgermination are processed for drying.v) Seed drying: Each accession is placed either in porous paperbags or muslin cloth bags. Seeds are dried at low relative humidityand at low temperature, i.e., 15 per cent RH. and 15°Ctemperature. Under these conditions, seeds dry within 10-15 days.When seed attains 4-6 per cent moisture, they are packed inaluminium foil and hermetically sealed. These packets are readyfor storage in genebank. All the information pertaining to thegermplasm stored (long term), is properly documented and thecomputerized database is available to the users for their breedingprogramme.Selected ReferencesBass, L.N. (1978). Principles and practices of seed storage.Agriculture Handbook No. 506, U.S. Department of Agriculture.Frankel, D.H. and Soule M.E. (1981). Conservation and evaluation.Cambridge University press, Cambridge.IBPGR (1985). Cost effective long-term seed stores. InternationalBoard for Plant Genetic Resources, Rome.Khanna, P.P. and Singh, N. (1991). Conservation of plant geneticresources. In: Plant genetic resources conservation andmanagement. (Eds. Paroda, RS. and Arora, R.K.) IBPGRpublication.Rana, RS. and Chandel, K.P.S. (1992). Crop genetic resources. In:Sustainable management of natural resources (Eds. Kosho, T.N.and Manju Sharma). Malhotra Publ. House, New Delhi.