We had cluster beans as an intercrop for guava some time ago, and I wanted to share with you how I tried to collect and preserve those seeds. Cluster Beans grow upright, reaching a maximum height of up to 2–3 m. It has a main single stem with either basal branching or fine branching along the stem. Cluster Bean roots can access soil moisture in low soil depths. This legume develops root nodules with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria rhizobium in the surface part of its rooting system. Its fine leaves have an elongated oval shape (5 to 10 cm in length) and are of alternate positions. Clusters of flowers grow in the plant and are white to blueish in color. The developing pods are rather flat and slim containing 5 to 12 small oval seeds of 5 mm in length. Usually, mature seeds are white or gray, but with excess moisture, they can turn black and lose germination capacity.
So I first plucked a lot of Cluster Beans and put them into the solar dryer to make them stiff instead of soggy. Then I dumped all of the seeds on the ground and started to roll heavy stones on them, this made the outer layer turn into small pieces. At last, I just separated the seeds and the small pieces. That’s it, now we have the seeds, but how do we store them? To store traditional seeds many farmers use ash, but I being curious wanted to try without it…
I stored it in a plastic container, this was around November 15, 2021, and today, the day I am writing this post April 7, 2022. So fr about six months the seeds look good but some white things are starting to form, and I think it is because the container isn’t letting any air in. I still recommend you keep your seeds in ash…