P139 - Honeysuckle, feminized, by Advanced Female Seeds. This was given to me by @Gaz29
This is the only seed I have. I have no idea how old it is or how it was stored. With this in mind, I have chosen to use the germination bomb to get the process started. Germination bomb and solution was detailed here:
12/20/2018 9:50 PM -
First order of business is to clean the seed. I put the seed into a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and 3% H2O2. I shook the container vigorously for 60 seconds and let it sit for 15 minutes, shaking occasionally.
While the seed was soaking in the cleaning solution, I mixed a solution for use in the GBomb. The base of the solution is my Plantwater. My Plantwater is mixed as 5 gallons of my R.O. water (my R.O. unit actually adds 15 PPM of calcium and magnesium) with 20ml HydroGuard. This mixture then gets pH set to 5.8 pH.
Here is the solution I used:
3.5 liters of Plantwater
7ml Ful-Power
3.5ml CleanKelp
3.5ml of DMSO
7 drops of Superthrive
Stirred thoroughly.
I’ve experimented quite a bit with the GBomb and already knew that it is best to change the solution at least every 24 hours, so I mix 3.5 liters at a time. This formula is based on the one in the above posting. I converted it to milliliters and tweaked it just a bit.
I left out the H2O2 because it seemed to me that the major use for it is to add extra oxygen to the solution. With the solution getting heavily aerated, I didn’t think it was necessary.
12/20/2018 10:41 PM -
Put into the germination bomb using 500ml of solution in the GBomb. Turned on the air pump. I placed the jar on top of the remote thermostat probe. I set the temperature to 82°F.
At this time, I was using a 2 lpm air pump and 2 air stones. I ran the air stones on 2 separate lines to be positive of covering more area in the jar.
12/21/2018 11:49 PM -
I checked on my seed. It had not cracked yet. I changed the solution for fresh and re-started the G-Bomb.
12/22/2018 10:43 PM -
I checked the seed again. It had not cracked yet. It had been 48 hours since I put it in the G-Bomb. I don’t want to waterlog my only seed. I put the seed in a paper towel between ceramic plates on heat mat. The towel is folded many times. The seed is set on the folded towel leaving a single layer to cover the seed after moistening.
Since paper towels contain no nutritional elements, I used my Babywater to to moisten the paper towel.
This is the formula for my Babywater:
1 gallon of Plantwater
1ml Cal-Mag Plus
1ml FloraGrow
12/23/2018 2:39 PM -
Checked. No progress yet. The paper towel dried out somewhat, so I re-moistened it.
12/24/2018 2:41 PM -
Still no joy. I wiped off the evaporated water from the top plate. I re-moistened the paper towel again.
12/25/2018 8:00 PM -
Seed cracked. 
Re-moistened. Each time I moisten the paper towel, I provide just enough moisture to dampen the towel to the touch.
12/26/2018 4:18 PM -
Seed is completely cracked.
12/27/2018 6:35 PM -
Growth under shell is slow, but moving along nonetheless.
This sprouting seed has an unusual hypocotyl (emerging sprout). It almost looks like the seed wants to have 2. I’ve only seen this a few times.
12/28/2018 7:18 PM -
Tap root continues to grow. It is about 4mm long. Moistened the towel anew.
12/29/2018 9:41 PM -
Grown almost completely out of the shell. Time to plant it.
12/29/2018 10:08 PM -
Although I normally grow in coco, I planted this seed into some Fox Farm Happy Frog soil. I did this because of the extremely slow growth of the hypocotyl (the emerging sprout). When I was trying to grow out some difficult seeds, I failed each attempt. Several other members had success with the same seeds and each of them had planted in soil, so I decided to give it a try.
1/3/2018
Five days in pot. Looks pretty normal.
1/6/2019
This seedling has been in its pot for 8 days and it is either dead or growing VERY slowly. The cotyledons (starter leaves) have been above the soil surface . They still green, but have gotten thin. I am continuing to keep an eye on it.
1/11/2019
This seed never completed, even though the cotyledons (starter leaves) are still green.
I didn’t until I looked at these photos at all until 2/26 when I was naming. When I did, this is what I saw in a closeup.
Needless to say, I panicked over this and started this thread:
You’ll see in upcoming posting for Cradle to grave. Seeds, clones, STS, germination and more that I lost another seed and it too had these bulb mites all over it. I was certain they were responsible for these deaths, however the general consensus seems to be that they are harmless, possibly even beneficial. If they are, I need to keep looking to find an answer as to why this seed died.
Before I ever saw the mites, I was sure it was that the honeysuckle seed was old, possibly not taken proper care of. I had gotten it from @Gaz29 but he had gotten it from someone else. Who knows how many hands it passed through and how aware they were about seed care. So, while I was disappointed, I wasn’t alarmed.
Then I started the next grow… 