Black widow seeds not germinating?

[firehead]

Hi All,
Happy to have found this site, which seems to have experienced growers rather than all the reddit boards and sites where folks don’t seem to know what they’re talking about.

Anyway… I’M still a bit of a noob!
Been growing continuosly at home for about 3 years. Always fem seeds. Learned a lot so far, always had good success. So far, grown White Widow, Blue Dream, Jack Herer, Northern Lights, Blueberry.

But, decided I wanted to stop buying seeds. So, thought I could just grow my own.
I ordered a pack of Black Widow seeds from Mr Nice (White Widow is my favorite, and I figured Shantibaba’s must be the best I will find anywhere)

First attempt. Germinated 4 seeds. All super healthy. But, bad luck… all 4 were males.
Popped 3 more, and got 2 nice females.

Finally picked one robust, stinky male, and 1 strong female, and stuck them in a tent together.
Let the female plant go about 9 weeks. Harvested and hung to dry for about 9 days, until seeds were starting to drop from the pods.
I got >100 seeds that were nicely speckled brown. All greenish ones I tossed. In fact, my seeds looked better than the ones I got from Mr Nice (some were pale)

Couple weeks later, decided to germ 10 seeds, to check success rates.
0%! none germinated, using same germ technique I’ve always used.

Having experience with other seeds that need a cold dormant period (like apple seeds) before they germ, I tried that… I tossed some into a container in the fridge for 3 weeks.

Tried again to germinate 10.
0% success.

Any idea what I might have done wrong?
Did the plants need to go even longer for the seeds to mature more?
Could my male be producing all sterile offspring?

Thanks in advance!

[beacher]

That’s strange. You started them in flowering together at the same time?

[firehead]

Yes. both put into flowering at the same time.
The male pollen sacks started popping open after about 3-4 weeks (what a mess it made!)
After I was sure the female was thoroughly pollinated, I cut male down and tossed him. So, female grew alone in the small tent.

[herb4ever]

I have not had to try this myself, but I read this somewhere. If you take a small piece of light grit sandpaper, roll it like a joint with the sandpapered side facing in. Then put your seeds in it. Holding it between your thumb and forefinger, gently shake it. Supposedly this scratches the seed shell and allows water to penetrate easier. Again, I haven’t had the need to try this, but it can’t hurt. Good luck!

[firehead]

Herb,
Yeah, I’ve heard the same thing about scuffing the seeds with sandpaper… and I think I will try that next with another batch of 10 seeds.

But, do all the seed banks scuff up their seeds before selling them?

I’ve bought seeds from Pyramid, ILGM, Crop King, and Coffeshop. Always had almost 100% germ success. So, this total germ failure has be confused… maybe theirs are all pre-scuffed?

[herb4ever]

I don’t think any distributors do it, I think it is rarely needed. I just dropped 16 different OG strains, all but one had tails after two days.

Also, pardon my manners, Welcome aboard!!!

[Papalag]

Seed may not be viable seed ripen way after the time I would harvest my bud

Scuff with sand paper lightly along this ridge or crack ( I use my teeth very lightly)
You can soak them in hydrogen peroxide mixed with water

Some seeds just have thick shells ( my Novacane is that way )

Some just take time

No companies do not pre scuff seeds

[firehead]

Cool. thanks, Papalag.
I guess I’ll try another run, and let the plants go a few more weeks before harvest.

[OleReynard]

Let them all set out if you got them pkged, did you dry them?
Next put them in the freezer for a couple days.

Then I like to soak every seed that goes thru my hands in a glass of water for 24 hrs
Then take your finger and pole at each seed in the glass, do they sink, they should.
Then do whatever you do next.

[George]

That technique is called scarification, I follow always the advice given bt LabRat in this thread.

Welcome, Firehead , you will find also more info here, having all those seeds available you can experiment, good luck!

[Jamescoldflame]

I was going through the same thing with my own seeds. All the ass/afkansastan/x18 crosses wouldn’t pop in just paper towels…I pinched them at the seams until I heard the snap. Then put them in moist paper towel…boom. all had taps in 24 hrs… and I tried different ones on different days.

[avr1]

The seeds need to lay out in the open (dry) for at least 4 weeks, 8 weeks even better, patience bro

[AllOra]

Patience maybe, but you’ve got seeds to play with. Do all the things above and drop five a week until the rates go up. My CGxPR S1s started 1/200 and was better than 50% after a couple weeks. 98% after a month.

[firehead]

so, the other day I was cutting some clones. I grabbed a small glass jar off the workbench and filled it with water, and clones went in to sit for a couple days.
When I pulled them out to stick them in rockwool cubes, I found 2 of my black widow seeds sitting in the bottom of the jar.

I didnt know they were in there. They must have been in there for at least 4-5 weeks drying out. Now, they had been soaking for 2 days.
So, I put them in a wet paper towel and layed them under a CFL. Checked on them today, and they both sprouted!

So, avr1, I think you were 100% right! the seeds probably just needed more time to dry out before becoming viable!

Thanks!!

[Buzzer777]

Agree…You should only have to scarify hard, thick shelled seeds or maybe older beanz.

[repins12]

That was my understanding as well, mostly needed on older seeds

[GYOweed]

Dry, cure, fridge 24 hours.

[GYOweed]

Thanks @firehead !
You also a baker by any chance?

@LemonadeJoe