Seeds can deteriorate rapidly under high heat and humidity, making it challenging and potentially costly to store orthodox seeds effectively in the tropics, thereby affecting agriculture development. This work explores the effectiveness of novel, low-cost technologies for storing seeds in warm, humid, resource-constrained environments, focusing on maintaining the viability of seeds already dry prior to storage. Seeds of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), and velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC) were kept for 12 months under roofed, outdoor screened porches. Seed moisture content prior to treatment was 6, 9, and 12% for okra, sorghum, and velvet bean, respectively. Treatments, replicated four times at each of two locations (USA [Florida] and Thailand), were technology suites involving vacuum drawn on glass jars with a modified bicycle pump, vacuum drawn on polyethylene bags with an electric vacuum sealing machine, desiccant (calcium oxide powder or zeolite Drying Beads® at a 2:1 ratio, by weight, of seeds to desiccant) in glass jars, and nontreated seeds in paper bags. Ambient temperature and humidity were variable and high, reaching over 35 °C and 83%, respectively, at both locations. Under these conditions, okra and sorghum germination percentages (across locations) without treatment declined from over 90% initially to 30 and 0%, respectively, by month 12. Both vacuum treatments and calcium oxide maintained high germination of okra (≈ 80%) and velvet bean seeds (nearly 100%) across locations. Glass, however, was superior to polyethylene in maintaining vacuum and stabilizing the moisture content of okra and sorghum seeds. Only zeolite reduced seed moisture below initial values, drying seeds to ultradry levels of <5%. With zeolite, sorghum germination stayed near 70% over time, while okra and velvet bean germination fell to <40 and <20%, respectively, by month 12, suggesting that, with the beads kept with dry seeds in storage rather than removing the beads after reaching a target level of seed moisture, the 2:1 ratio of seed-to-bead weight was too high for seeds that are sensitive to ultralow moisture. Findings have practical implications for inexpensive household- or community-level seed storage to deliver development impact.

种子在高温和高湿条件下会迅速变质，这使得在热带地区有效储存传统种子具有挑战性并且可能成本高昂，从而影响农业发展。这项工作探索了在温暖、潮湿、资源受限的环境中储存种子的新型低成本技术的有效性，重点是保持储存前已经干燥的种子的活力。秋葵 ( Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench)、高粱 ( Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) 和天鹅绒豆 ( Mucuna pruriens ) 的种子(L.) DC) 在有屋顶的室外屏蔽门廊下保存了 12 个月。秋葵、高粱和丝绒豆处理前的种子水分含量分别为 6%、9% 和 12%。在两个地点（美国 [佛罗里达] 和泰国）中的每一个重复四次的处理是技术套件，包括使用改进的自行车泵在玻璃罐上抽真空、用电动真空密封机在聚乙烯袋上抽真空、干燥剂（氧化钙粉末或沸石 Drying Beads®（种子与干燥剂的重量比为 2:1）放在玻璃罐中，未处理的种子放在纸袋中。环境温度和湿度变化多端且高，在两个位置分别达到 35 °C 和 83% 以上。在这些条件下，到第 12 个月，未经处理的秋葵和高粱发芽率（跨地区）从最初的 90% 以上分别下降到 30% 和 0%。真空处理和氧化钙均保持了秋葵（≈ 80%）和天鹅绒豆种子的高发芽率（约 80%）。几乎 100%) 跨地区。然而，玻璃在保持真空和稳定秋葵和高粱种子的水分含量方面优于聚乙烯。只有沸石将种子水分降低到初始值以下，将种子干燥至 <5% 的超干水平。使用沸石，高粱的发芽率随着时间的推移保持在 70% 左右，而秋葵和天鹅绒豆的发芽率在第 12 个月时分别下降到 <40% 和 <20%，这表明在储存时将珠子与干燥的种子一起保存而不是移除珠子在达到种子水分目标水平后，2：对于对超低水分敏感的种子来说，1 种子与珠粒重量的比率太高。研究结果对于廉价的家庭或社区级种子储存以产生发展影响具有实际意义。