Unless you are handling enormous quantities of material I should have thought a manual process would in fact be just as quick as using a machine in which you have to adjust all the settings for each species. The genera you mention all have dense, more or less round seeds that lend themselves very well to a manual process of simple sieving and winnowing that would get them 99% clean in a couple of minutes. A graded series of seed-cleaning sieves would be useful. A clipper will only go so far: there would still be the final cleaning to be done by sieving and winnowing. My recommendation for a seed-cleaning equipment supplier would be Seed Processing, from Enkhuizen in The Netherlands, which produces an extraordinary range of equipment in all shapes and sizes, but I do not know if they have a USA representative. John Grimshaw Dr John M. Grimshaw Garden Manager, Colesbourne Gardens Sycamore Cottage Colesbourne Nr Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 9NP Website: http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gilbert Nancy L Contr 9 CES/CEC (by way ofMary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org>)" <Nancy.Gilbert@beale.af.mil> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 10:05 PM Subject: [pbs] Desktop Seed Cleaner > To All, > Do any of you out there have any experience using small scale seed cleaning > machines for processing bulb seeds? In particlular, we are interested in > the Clipper desktop seed cleaner or equivalent and how well such a machine > handles the pods and small seeds of California native bulbs such as > Brodiaeas, Alliums, Dichelostemmas etc. We also would appreciate any leads > as to where we might be able to purchase a used seed cleaner at a > reasonable price. > > Thanks. > > Nancy Gilbert > Far West Bulb Farm > Zone 7, Northern California Sierra Foothills > >