Process and apparatuses for sorting seeds

摘要

A process for sorting seeds exhibiting good germinability, etc., in particular seeds with heavy fruits such as beech nuts and acorns, consists in the fact that the seeds are placed in portions into a container with water heated to at least 35 DEG C and not more than 50 DEG C, after a residence time of from a few minutes up to approximately 15 minutes the seeds floating at the top of the container are skimmed off, and the seeds which have sunk to the bottom and exhibit good germinability are then removed from the container. Apparatuses for carrying out the process comprise, in principle, a water container (1, 20) with correspondingly heated water, in the case of which apparatuses the seeds floating at the top are skimmed off by at least one screen (10-11, 27) and the germinable seeds which have sunk onto a sieve (2) or a conveying belt (22) which exhibits scraping strips (21) are removed or conveyed out of the water container. <IMAGE>