After a 6 years hiatus I am back to one of my favourite passtimes - growing cannabis. I am a mini-scale grower for personal needs and enjoy the process at least as much if not more than the end result. In these crazy times coming back to growing is a way for me to center myself, find some peace and temporarily forget the daily troubles.
That said, coming back was not as easy as expected. The canna world and community seems changed - the forums are different, the people are different, the hype strains, the now seemingly normal $200+ seed packs… I was bouncing around the web, IG and FB, not sure if I was liking what the scene has become.
Luckily, I found this place in my searches. Poking around for a while, the community seems friendly, happy to help and extremely generous. Finding some familiar faces sealed the deal and I decided to make this my new canna-web-home :). I am putting my stake down and from now on, you will have to deal with my trials and tribulations. Sorry in advance .
Ok, to business! Main reason for the morbid post title are my current troubles with seed germination. I have a small bean collection from my previous gardening efforts that I have been trying to germinate since end of october. The seeds weren’t stored in the fridge, but were otherwise kept well - in sealed eppendorf vials, sandwiched between pieces of cotton, with rice as a makeshift dessicant.
These seeds are from roughly 2013-2014, so I was expecting some germination troubles and some duds. But so far, I got exactly 0 living plants . My first try was E$kobar’s Chucky’s Bride (Cheese X C99) that I was really looking forward to: 0/10. Then I tried wheezy’s (RIP friend!!!) 303 Bio-Diesel F2s - 0/14. And here are the results of my latest efforts, what remains of Bio-Ds, a half-pack of Cosmic’s Yeti Fighter and a pack of some Tahoe Alien F3s. These seeds spent 24 hours in tap water with kelp extract, then were rinsed and places in moist paper towels. Here we are 48 hours later:
I’m not gonna lie guys, the whole situation is a bit demoralizing. It’s like my whole collection was microwaved or something… The seeds aren’t THAT old and they weren’t stored THAT badly.
I’m not giving up though, still some fire in my magic box. I already tried with soaking in 100ppm GA3, I am gonna try 250ppm and 500ppm solutions as my last resort. Will keep you updated, cause I’m sure you have nothing better to do than follow some random guy from across the globe failing repeatedly at the very first obstacle .
I’m sure your probably doing things right but have to ask your attempting to sprout in a warm spot ie on top of the cable box or fridge ?
Six year old seeds should pop I’d think . I’ve had seeds take 6 days you could try the freezer trick 24 hrs in freezer them warm wet towel.
cool stable temp and humidity are the most important factors for storage and for beanz to last and be viable
some seeds take a long time to germinate - leave them at least a week
Ya they’re not that old, so maybe they’re just taking their time. I’d try a direct sow in a not overly moist medium, put them somewhere warm and give them 1-2 weeks. If they don’t take I’m sure you could find some fresh beans on here!
Send me your addy and i will send you some Soma Lavender F2s made by our very own heritagefarms. If your in the states that is. Not trying to ship international right now.
I keep them on water with two drops of peroxide until they show their tail, they will not drown if they are already dead , scarifying them a bit before also helps, here you will find more info, good luck with the rest and welcome …
I agree you should be able to get at least 2-3 out of ten to pop on those.
Have you made a pill bottle lined with sandpaper, and shake them for 5 min (gently) before soaking overnight in the seaweed solution? I find the roughing up of shells really helps to allow them to break out the tap root.
Get a cup of water, set it on top of your wireless router. Heat is key to getting stubborn seeds to germinate. It’ll hold the water at around 90 degrees. Just leave them floating there until they sprout, won’t take more than a couple days.
You can lightly sand the seam of the seed shell with an emery board, fine sandpaper, or the striker on a matchbook.
Try adding a dash of sugar to the soak water. I use coconut sugar, but I’ve read that old seeds may have lost their energy source to get going and that’s where the sugar comes into play.
What an ominously awesome name for a diary. Lean into the failure; it’s the only thing that turns it into success!
In for the ride on this one. Germination is one of my favorite things in gardening. It’s like being a plant OB/GYN. The key to germination success came, for me, the day I never used a paper towel ever again. I’d rather direct sow seeds in soil, though I prefer plugs with a heat pad in a greenhouse. I don’t usually have mold issues with cannabis seeds and don’t feel the need to do a h2o2 soak. I’ll soak 24 hours, then move to the greenhouse with plugs on a heat pad. I usually get 90-100% germ rate, usually the latter.
Pulling up a chair on this one, welcome to OG ! Been having a few seed issues myself this year it seems so definitely gonna follow along and see how things go. Good luck
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. My first try was E$kobar’s Chucky’s Bride (Cheese X C99) that I was really looking forward to: 0/10. Then I tried wheezy’s (RIP friend!!!) 303 Bio-Diesel F2s - 0/14. And here are the results of my latest efforts, what remains of Bio-Ds, a half-pack of Cosmic’s Yeti Fighter and a pack of some Tahoe Alien F3s. These seeds spent 24 hours in tap water with kelp extract, then were rinsed and places in moist paper towels. Here we are 48 hours later:
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, scarifying them a bit before also helps, here you will find more info, good luck with the rest and welcome … 
