May 21, 2008

GrowTechnology and Astec Global have signed an exclusive agreement to promote and sell the Seedanalyser (SA10) worldwide through Astec Global. The Seedanalyser is developed by GrowTechnology B.V. Astec Global is pleased that it can add the Seedanalyser to the list of its commercial products.

The Seedanalyser can work complementary to the by Astec Global developed Q2 machine. Both machines give different information about the seed-lot quality.

It also fits in the Astec-Global philosophy to bring new developments to the seed industry worldwide.

The Seedanalyser is developed for a quick evaluation of the seed maturity in the field. It will give directly information about the most optimal moment to harvest the seeds. Astec Global is now testing the suitability of the Seedanalyser during the cleaning process of the seeds.

Anthony Brouwers ((President Grow®) and Freek Schreurs (Director New Business WW Astec-Global) believe that the Seedanalyser can be used in the future also in other parts of the seed logistics.

The measurement is based on chlorophyll fluorescence. The technique is a very sensitive, fast, non-destructive method for measuring chlorophyll in seeds.

Scientifically it has been shown that chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) can be used as an effective indicator of seed ripeness: as the quantity of chlorophyll decreases during seed maturation ripe seeds contain smaller quantities of chlorophyll than immature seeds.

During the measurement seeds are irradiated with a specific wavelength of the light spectrum from a laser. Chlorophyll emission corresponds with the amount of chlorophyll present in the seeds. On the screen a graph of the distribution in seed ripeness will be displayed.

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Website: http://www.astec-global.com

Published: May 21, 2008