Germination was similar for seeds stored for 371 days at 5°C either with or without the beads after the
same initial drying treatment. There was lower germination of seeds dried at low temperature and then stored
at -20°C; however, this was attributed to dormancy. Whilst the water uptake isotherms confirmed the high
capacity of the beads compared with silica gel, particularly at low relative humidity, the beads do not work to
full capacity in a bead-seed system and the adsorption properties appeared to change. Further work is required
to optimise the use of these beads for drying seeds to target moisture contents, without either under-drying
which could lead to undesirable high rates of viability loss, or unnecessary and perhaps detrimental over-drying.