Curious… Do seed outlets generaly not “guarantee” germination? Would seem odd if they did because germinating carries a lot of variables. Been having a rough time this winter getting some older seeds to pop… probably on my 18th seed and only have 3 sprouts in the grow so far. Temp, humidty, etc etc all been checked, double checked… Next step is giberillic acid.
I think I’ve developed a new phobia- seed germination.
Just curious regarding germinating “guarantees” when paying for seeds (never bought them before).
Had a ton of issues popping seeds last year
it was a fungus infecting the seeds from within when they got wet
lost around 90 seeds (some expensive, some freebies)
used dilute TCP as soak and on the paper towel
Every one popped after that I read up and its like peroxide for seed starting
not just anti bacterial, there is more to it. (phenolics)
they love it
@spillz907 I’m with you. I think that’s why autos and fem seeds are around. Never tried them but sounds like lots of people have great success. I’m having a rough go this winter too. I’m attributing it to user error though.
Wow 90 lost @gordongecko. Hope that has turned around for you.
i’m not sure about TCP but i know people who put a splash of h2o2 in their water when germinating to kill germs and prevent damping off. for older seeds you could try gibberellic acid to increase germ rates.
most seedbanks do not guarantee germination because it is illegal and they sell the seeds as souvenirs. it’s best to deal directly with breeders because you’re practically guaranteed fresher stock and they might be more inclined to offer something for poor germination
I don’t know about all seed vendors, but I complained to BC seeds about poor germ ratio for a a recent purchase and they replaced the order. I think most reputable vendors will replace a bad order.
Sometimes they need to be very lightly sanded to soften shell to allow water in , this is a delicate process and only would try as last resort. I’ve seen old beans pop after months of being in damp soil. My ex was sorting premature beans out of a box once and throwing them into a house plant, dam things would pop up every so often for about 6 months
Interesting video. The technique is cleaning step is good for old seeds. I doubt the price for his kit would be worth it. I used a more complicated sterilization technique from Chimera on my old Ancestral Skunk seeds.
I have a few more techniques I want to try. The next batch will soak in fulvic acid (ful-power) until they crack as suggested by Clackamas Coot. The idea is that fulvic acid will boost the enzyme activity. This is similar to the “sugar and oxygen” solution in the video.
There was an thread on ICmag about germinating old seeds and his best results came from just chucking them in the worm bin. I know I get tons of sprouts in mine, I even have avocado seeds germinate in there.
was gonna mention the whole light sterilization and sugar soak due to slow tired enzymes in the seeds but the above video pretty much covers it.
Myself i just let them go, sometime i have to manually crack old seeds which can be tricky but i have a method that works for me, but after that most have enough power to grow.
Are you talking about slightly cutting the seam of the seed to allow for penetration, so to speak? I’ve tried filing down the sides of a few, nothing. Tired using an xacto knife on one seed but i ended up tossing that one after 2 weeks and it becoming mush.
no, this is tricky to do but once you know how and have done it a few times its relatively easy.
I only do this for seeds that don’t crack initially. Those seeds that lag behind compared to the others or where fresher seeds would have thrown 1-3cm tap roots by now.
What i do is take the seed in between my index finger and thumb and take a set of tweezers and align the seed so the ridge on the edge of the seed is in contact with the top and bottom of the tweezers and you squeeze lightly till the seed shell cracks open. Then i just throw it back in paper towel for another couple days.
The trick though is to get some of your “finger meat” in between the tweezer prongs as it act like a bump stop preventing the tweezers from going to far and crushing the seed. Also i use medical style tweezers for this as they have little teeth on the prongs that prevent the seed from rolling or shooting out, like such.
I could do a demo and try and take some pictures later when im home on how to do it if you would like, have plenty of seeds i can sacrifice.
I just did that with two… guess what popped out like it was 1999. a taproot. thing wanted out so bad it literally SHOT out … i used this method…hopefully it will take off now:
Similar idea, pressure to crack or simply snipping off the point to allow the taproot to actually have enough force to open that thing up… basically bypassing the (now “fossilized”) seed shell.
edit: actually the clippers work well because of the leverage and no need to pad the tweezers, just have to be careful. i have similar tweezers and will try those as well but dang did the fingernail clippers work well… i wont know til tomorrow but so far its looking like the three i messed with might sprout roots.
Thanks man- I’m definitely at the point where they need this level help with these stubborn things
@gordongecko there is something called “Polyversum” those are spoores of Pythium oligandrum Drechsler eating up the the plant-killer fungi. Not easy to get but some countries are still selling it. Blessings brother.
So far, only one, yes one, has actually rotted out. They are all still hard (even the ones that have been soaking for 2+ weeks). I took a couple of the older ones and just crushed them open to see what was inside… white taproot, no rot. These things are still good inside for the most part, it’s just a matter of getting them to initiate.
I think physically working through the shell is the point I’m at with these (unless I use something like giberillic acid) but this it’s all basically just random seed so I’d hope to get 6 sprouts without having to buy something considering i have over 100 good, healthy looking seeds.
no Problem @spillz907. This subject pops up a lot and there are so many tried and true methods.
I’ve scratched off the seed membrane and scared up the shell and seams really well with the edge of a razor blade and tried lining a film canister with 200grit sand paper and shake them about to scuff up. Sand paper scuffing didn’t work. Or at least I wasn’t patient enough to see. Still watching the latest batch.
On site Old-school we had the same problems with no fancy sulutions. The best results i have achieved were actually just using some fine / grainy sand, not beach sand like fine gravel with many colors and textures I look for Formica because of the sharp edges. Take a standard salt shaker’ if the seeds might be dirty or contaminated only add a pinch of salt to kill.microbial life. If you know the seeds are clean add about 2 pinches of whole grain natural sugar.
Take your salt shaker fill approx 1/3 with the sand and sugar. (Salt if contaminated) drop in seeds and GENTLY NOW TUBLE.do not shake the piss out of em. I usually find that if I play two songs while gently just spinning it around in my hands that is the right amount of time roughly 10 minutes.this will polish and GENTLY apply some abrasion to the surface of the seed casing so moisture can penetrate evenly . Take about a quart of clean water add some seaweed fertilizer to it for the micros. Just a few drops do not push this less is more here. On a side note if you think the seeds have been contaminated in any way add 3 drops of hydrogen peroxide and a separate container and soak the seeds in there for roughly an hour and then put them in the seaweed solution. Just my 2€ worst case scenario some manual manipulation as described above. Medical tweezers and finger-meat stopper
