If any of my seeds come up with the seed pod on I remove them, I have never seen them come off by themselves once above ground. Magnifying glasses, a medium stiff artists brush, and the steadiest hand I can manage, which is difficult for me, I usually only kill about 10%.
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you can also give them a little misting of water to help soften
the shell
makes it a bit easier
all the best
Dequilo
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Good tip about using stiff brush @Shadey, didnāt think of that. I played around with a toothpick, tweezers and my nails.
Iāve had some experience with seeds that like to keep their helmets on before. As @dequilo says, misting the shells to soften them usually works and cotyledons can exert enough force to remove the covers naturally. Human saliva is supposed to help as well, softening the shells even moreā¦
These older seeds with improper storage need all the help they can get though. I hope this one pulls through. If not, Iāll be planting a new round with full moon at the end of the month.
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So things are moving somewhat around these parts. My survivor seedling is still fighting and actually making progress, although it needs all the care that I can give it. Since my last post 4 days ago it was babied by manually removing the shell, then regular misting of the membrane and in the end actually cutting the membrane carefully to allow cotyledons to open. It has rewarded me for it by not dieing and actually trying to put out a first set of true leaves! So it finally made it from windowsill to my tent, currently under my old blurple 125W Hans panel. Just for illustration, itās been 13 days since I soaked these seeds :).
Soooo, since I have no guarantee that the plant will survive and that it is indeed female, I soaked some more seeds yesterday. This time I chose 8 Pure Gooeys and 4 Shiva X C99s. They were scuffed, given 24 hours in water+H2O2 solution and then planted directly in Plagron seed starter kit - jiffy pellets soaked with their Seed Booster product. The later contains mild nutrient solution and beneficials designed to help seeds germinate. I decided against using kelp this time as I knew I was going to use Seed Booster and didnāt want to introduce too many variables. In 5 days or so, we should see how this method compares to standard soak+paper towerls, which didnāt work out for me the last time.
In other news, although my Ace Seeds order still hasnāt arrived, I took advantage of black friday promotions and ordered some Mephisto Genetics packs. Iāve been interested in auto strains and wanted to try Mephisto, but their stores were always closed when I looked. I was happy to get an opening notification today and managed to snag Chemdogging, HubbaBubbaHaze and Samsquanch OG. Livers BX sold out in 30 minutes in EU store!
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I use the pods too. What I have found works well for me is I soak my pods in water I have added kelp to then phād.
I do not presoak my seeds. Once the pods are expanded and ready, I just put my seeds in there. I have about a 95% germ rate doing this.
Usually within 4 days most are up. 6 days after I have dropped them in the pods, I plant what came up.
I have 4 journals going on here using that method.
Good luck with this round. Glad to help if I can.
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I always used the soak - paper towel - plant method before, but then I was working with fresh seeds and had great results. Seems it is almost harder to kill a healthy fresh seed than stop itās germination once you introduce some moistureā¦
With these older seeds, they really need all the help they can get. Even with GA3, Iāve had poor results so far. Thatās why I opted for the scuff and additional soak before planting in the pellets. I read the thread about direct sowing here and I kinda agree with the general sentiment. But I think soaking will increase my chancesā¦ With fresh seeds I wonāt bother - straight to pellets!
Iāll be sure to check your threads too, thanks for stopping by.
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All this seed/germination talk is starting to bore me 
. So here are some pics of my previous grows to spruce up the thread.
This was my Black Triangle #3 pheno. A friend smoked it with his then-girlfriend and they both though they were going to die 
. Definitely not for inexperienced tokers! I loved it, great piney-rubbery aroma and just plain narcotic. Deep, deep relaxation!
Not completely 100%, but I think this was my GG#4 clone. I was very happy to get this strain, along with some other then-elite clones like Casey Jones and Daywrecker Diesel.
This was my growing situation: a modded growbox made of an old wardrobe with 400W HPS in a cooltube and later a 125W Hans panel LED. I used to grow 2 plants on a monthly rotation. I was training them for 8 tops in manifold style and vegged in a separate small cabinet with a CFL light. Growing was done in an organic medium, heavily influenced by Coot and Gascanastanās LOS forums. Fun times!
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Beautiful plants and canopy managment!!
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Some great looking plants !
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Iām drooling over here. Girls are really showing their naughty bits.
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Looks excellent!
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I have a bunch of pods i think i will start using them
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Speaking of naughty bits. Why is santa the luckiest guy in the world?
Because he knows where all the naughty girls live
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Thanks brother, I was and still am proud of them.
Much appreciated!
Pics are from a while a go, years actually. I do hope to share similar pics soon though ;).
Thank you!
The jury is still out on the pods, but I like them so far. Very straightforward.
If only Mrs. Santa knew
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Any input of how long a mixed salt-based nutrient batch lasts? Iām talking about Masterblend specifically, but it should be the same for Jackās and other brands. The instructions say to never premix as different elements could start reacting with each other. But Iād hate to have to keep mixing micro batches for my seedlings every day.
Thanks for your wisdom guys&gals.
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Iāve had good success with plant prod salts say mixing 30 gals over the course of 3 days of sitting PPMāS might drop 100 ppm ph stays the same . Iāll add a couple teaspoons to bring in back up to initial starting numbers .
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Ok, a few days should be ok thenā¦ Thanks for your input!
My little one isnāt doing too hot, seems like first pair of true leaves never really grew properly, they are smaller than cotyledons 
. I probably kept it in the pellet a day too long, but I had to do my preparations for coco as Iāve never done it beforeā¦
Over the past day I took PH/EC measurements of my water, Plagron Coco Premium slurry and Masterblend mixed to their instructions. Turns out, I have a quite hard water, coming in at 400 uS/cm EC and 7.8 PH. Sitting over night, it raised to 500 uS/cm and 8.6 PH 
. Soooooā¦ RO or nothing for me, it seems. The trouble is, I donāt have a RO filter and buying RO is justā¦ wrong in my eyes. Itās a problem Iāll have to figure, I canāt rely on drying machine and dehumidifier output once the plant starts drinking properly.
Anyway, testing Plagron Coco Premium, itās definitely rinsed properly, slurry coming in at 100 EC when mixed with RO water. Masterblend comes in at 1700 EC and almost perfect 6.0-6.1 when freshly mixed. Adding Silica will raise it a bit, so I will definitely need some PH-.
So what I did today was mix some coco with perlite and finally transplant my little survivor. It was watered with an overabundance of Masterblend solution cut 1/2 with RO water. I was afraid to use the full strenght, although some advocate for it (Green Gene in his Jackās videos for instance)ā¦ Iāll monitor the progress and take some EC measurements of runoff tomorrow. But the plant will tell me most of what I need to know anyway.
You can do it little one, I believe in you. 
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Wondering what you experienced coco growers think about fertigation frequency for young plants? Do you support wet/dry cycles, similar to soil? Or do you follow the Coco for cannabis school of thought - regular daily feedings to replace nutrients/oxygen in the root zone, relying on cocoās natural ability to hold 30ish% air even at full saturation?
Thanks for any advice!
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Not a coco fan but here you can find some useful answers ā¦ 
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Fantastic looking plantsā¦ Some chunky ladies up in there! More cushion for the bowl pushin
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