At the end of imbibition, priming or incubation
treatments, seeds were desiccated rapidly by means of
exposing them to moving air of 20°C and 40% RH.
This led to a decrease in moisture content of 5–10%
per hour. This desiccation method is referred to as ‘fast
drying’. Alternatively, seeds were dried slowly by
exposing them to standing air of 20°C and 75% RH for
3 d. This led to a decrease in moisture content of
0.1–0.3% per hour, referred to as ‘slow drying’. At the
end of such a treatment, seeds were transferred to fast
drying conditions to ensure complete desiccation.