I’ve had success popping stubborn beans with a few drops of superthrive but I don’t even know if they still make it, I heard it’s snake oil but it seemed to make a difference back then. I still have a bunch of it stored away.
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I got six out of fifty going, one damped off, three were female. One had male flowers about 4-weeks in, they all had male flowers in the buds by the end. No keepers kept, rest of the seeds were given away.
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I was wondering if anyone had tried soaking old seeds in compost /worm tea? Thoughts concerns? Haven’t had to my self but I’d probably try it! I was thinking that there are natural forms one could use for GA but none come to mind now will have to crack some books and research!
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@ReikoX, I have maybe 500 old seeds besides @Scissor-Hanz Headbands. They range from 11-15 years old. I’m going to try all the ideas in this thread on those.
Growing out old seeds is a skill that would be very useful!
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@Lucy247420, I’ve still got maybe 7 ozs. Superthrive. Looks like a great idea to try, especially since it a free test. Are you soaking the seeds in a water/Superthrive solution or are you planting them in the solution? If you are soaking, how long do you soak?
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Ya I’v seen him on a couple other vids man definitely knows his shizzle!
I use it at 1-2 drops per litre for seed soaking although I’m sure the instructions call for a heavy dose for this purpose, I’ve heard mixed opinions on its viability, but I’ve not had a failed pop since I started using it.
I have, however had negative results using it on freshly rooted cuttings, the stuff is strong for sure so use with caution.
As for how long I soak, I dunk em for 12hrs or until they sink and then 12 hours in paper towel is usually enough to crack em. I’ve not popped anything super old though, max a couple years, so results may vary with an ancient bean.
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Still pretty commonly found on store shelves!
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Thank you @Lucy247420. I’ll try your method. All the instructions on the bottle breakdown to 1/4 teaspoon/gallon I have a 1 pint bottle of it and even on a bottle that size, the fonts are incredibly small, so I may need to check again using magnifier to be sure.
As far as I can tell, the main ingredient in Superthrive is vitamin B1. They don’t list the ingredients, I had to search for it.
The bottle says not to use it for every feeding. I ignored that warning in 2003 and my plants actually slowed growth, where when used at most once per month, they grew very lush. Honestly, I haven’t really used it much in recent years because it has such a strong odor and I have other excellent nutes to use. There have been more than a few folks here that mentioned using it for seeds, so I thought I’d as one of you your actual technique. Several people have also mentioned using molasses fore germinating. I’d think they could be mixed together since they have different purposes.
Zen Hydro carries it for the same price I paid like 10 years ago.
@Enstromentals, I too thank you for the video. I ordered so gibberillic acid (eBay). I can’t wait until it gets here.
EDIT: @Lucy247420, the last time I searched Amazon and eBay was 2-3 years ago. I wanted to replace my very old supply and no one was selling Superthrive at either site. I don’t know what was up with that, they both have it for sale now and it is the same price as Zen Hydro. All these years and the price remained stable. Time for me to order a fresh supply. 
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@Enstromentals, thanks again for posting the video. I ordered some gibberillic acid (eBay). I can’t wait until it gets here, I found seeds from 6 strains I had and thought I had lost forever. They range from 2005 to 2012. I thought I’d tossed all my old seeds.
I also have had some barley seeds soaking for 2 days. I am going to try the SST (sprouted seed tea) mentioned in the video.
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@Cobra50 ga3 will cause stretching that’s why it’s not the go to right off the bat. Kevin is the man to really thank I’m just passing along his knowledge.
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Last week, I was cleaning up under my bed. There were so many dust bunnies that I could not see what was under there. I found a couple of nice wooden boxes that used to house diamond Blanchard wheels. I decided that if i clear coat them, they’d be good risers for my plants. When I opened them, I found I had seeds from 6 strains in there. I hadn’t forgotten them, I just never thought about them because they were old. Here is what they were:
White Russian - May 2005
Karpov - July 2005
Neville’s Haze - august 2005
Karpov x Blue Widow - April 2006
SRL -March - 2007 (I don’t remember what the initials stand for, can’t find it in my erratic records)
St. Loius Sleeper - August 2012
Friday, I took 5 seeds from each strain except the Karpov and the Karpov x Blue Widow. I just took 3 seeds ea with them, because I have only about 25 of each of those and surprise, surprise, they were both favorites). I soaked them in a weak H2O2/water solution (1 part H2O2, 20 parts RO water). Nothing changed by the end of the 24 hours. I then upped the H2O2 after seeing a video on YouTube where they’d germed seeds in paper towels at a 5:1 ratio favoring water. I mixed 1 oz 3% H2O2 and 5 oz RO water. At the end of another 24 hours, I had cracked shells in some. I then changed them to soaking in 5ml of molasses, and 2 drops of Superthrive mixed with 1 liter of the H2O2 solution I’d soaked them in. I checked in on them every 8 hours or so. I had some very slow growth action going with a handful of seeds. I’d order some fulvic acid through Amazon and it had arrived by noon today (Sunday. Amazon has some pull with the USPS). I drained all the molasses/Superthrive\H2O2 solution from the containers and cleaned them with straight peroxide and rinsed them. I mixed the fulvic acid with pH adjusted water (5.95pH) at 35ml Ful-Power to 1 gallon of water. I put enough solution in each container to leave them sticking above the waterline by maybe 1mm
After all the seed groups soaked another 6-8 hours, I checked in on them and was surprised to find:
3 White Russian seeds with tap root started at about 2mm long (WOW! My oldest seeds at 13.1 years old! 
)
1 Neville’s Haze seed in the same condition
1 SRL seed also with about a 2mm protrusion
1 St. Louis Sleeper with a tap root about 5mm long
The 2 Karpov strains still had 0 germination activity.
None of these guarantees they will become plants, I had 1 tap root almost 12mm long on 2 Headband seeds and they didn’t survive. BTW, the Headbands are the reason I want to be able to sprout fussy seeds. The seed base descriptions of them sound like they will become a favorite. And if I recover some or all the strains I thought I’d never see again: BONUS extraordinaire!!!
I’m thinking the Karpov strains will be good candidates for GA3 (gibberellic acid).
@Enstromentals, yeah, I got that. He said to be very careful because of it. I only intend to use it one the ones that don’t respond well to other techniques.
I have some barley seed trying to sprout. I started it about 5:00 pm last Thursday (72 hours ago). That is some tough stuff to germ. The seed is very dry and hard. I just checked in on it again 2 hours ago. There were some nubbins on some. Hoping it means they will sprout soon. Using sprouted seeds to replace enzymes and hormones that have diminished with age is a very interesting idea.
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Bad news on the sprouted seed tea front. After 3 days they were nowhere near sprouting. I looked up “germinating barley seed” on the internet.
The instructions were the same as Kevin’s instructions in his video. I watched 3 videos on the subject, the 3rd said, “its best to use seeds still in the hull because the seed gets damaged removing it.”
I did like the video said and went to a health food store and asked for barley seed. The lady asks, “Pearl barley?”. I told her I said I just know “barley seed”. I’ve never seen a barley seed. I’ve eaten barley. I like it, but I never saw it cooked.
I read the package when I started germing them because I didn’t see shells on them. I looked for “shelled” in the package. Nothing. I looked only in the large font for the information.
I re-read the package. In some of the smallest print on the package it said “pearled barley has had its hard outer layer removed”.
My cataracts make it difficult to read small print on a package, so I usually don’t. (I have an eye dr. appt this week, we’ll see if they are “ripe” yet. Why couldn’t my big vision problem have been glaucoma? 
)
Oh well, at least I know what to look in the next package.
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Just get malted barley (like used in beer brewing). It has already been (professionally) germinated and dried at peak efficiency. Grind it, too dress ot, and water it in. No muss, no fuss.
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I’ll look for it.Sad to report that only the one St Louis Sleeper is still alive and I am not too sure about it. Its tap root wasn’t smooth like normal. I put it in coco and have been watering it with a fulvic acid solution of 18ml/gallon. I usually like the tap to be extending out to twice that length because the wait for emergence is shorter, I just decided to take a chance.
I wasn’t actually expecting any to germinate except, maybe, the St. Louis Sleeper since they are only 6 years old. So I don’t feel bummed about it. And, this was only the first try. I have several hundred seeds left. Going 5 seeds at a time let’s me stay hopeful longer.
The next try will be using just one of the strains. I don’t know what I’d have done if I had a minimum of keeper from each of the 6 strains. I’d have been VERY sad to toss any out, and yet, I could only SQUEEZE in at most 4 plants (except The awesome little LowRyder x LaDivas I got from @ReikoX, I always have some space in Veg), in Flowering is where my little plants go to get huge. They typically go in around 18ish inches and at least double their height. I had a plant over a year ago that went in at 16.5 inches and harvested at 51.25 inches. As a result, I run out of Flowering very quickly. And, it is currently back to hot outdoors again, so my Flowering room is running 87°+ so I try to keep everything spread out for air flow.
Plus, I am still waiting on my GA3 and malted barley (to make sprouted seed tea) to get here. They both are supposed to be excellent for popping old beans. eBay sellers seem to take longer to actually get their merchandise to the post office. Almost every time, they print out a label and get a tracking number so they can say it has shipped and then don’t get it into the hands of a postal worker for up to (usually, actually) 48 hrs. Amazon sellers are usually faster than that, but they didn’t carry GA3.
Oh well, it is about time I learned to be patient. It is totally opposite to my nature…
Cheers all
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@MadScientist, I like a pair of hemostats. I hold the seed tightly enough that my fingers get pinched. This gives me an idea of how much pressure and allows a gentler, firm action. It took me a half dozen or so seeds originally to determine how much pressure to use. I get it to JUST crack without opening the shell.
Edit 2: Added the photos
I grab the seed with the seem in between both jaws…
I then hold the seed in the other hand so both finger pads are in contact with the tool:
I gently squeeze letting my fingers give feedback on how much pressure I am squeezing with.
Edit:
I saw this when you first posted it, then forgot it when I was searching for an easy method for germing old seeds. I just re-discovered it and will give it a try. Not a “simple” method, but it does provide a method for germinating in water. It seems, logically, that it would provide the best chance for success. It just means buying one more product, DMSO. But GA3 and sprouting seed tea may work just as well.
Thank you for posting this 
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