The only way to preserve is to freeze.
Longterm freezing can preserve seeds forever if they contain less than 5% h2o.
Short term storage (up to 20yrs)at refrigeration temp requires less than 10% moisture content .
Moisture content meters made for grain testing are cheap and can easily tell you the h2o percentage in a seed.
Now I won’t criticize everyone who bottlenecks with the intention of “preserving”. Just stop calling it a preservation run. Each filial reproduction us truly just inbreeding and recombining the shrunken genepool.
Howdy @Cleghorn, another way to preserve is to maintain the parents used in a given cross. So to say, keep them alive where they’re able to continually be mated together where they can continually reproduce the seeds with the same genetic inputs. It definitely takes a different set of resources but it’s another possibility. Many blessings and much love
You’re right about clones however I was talking about seed preservation.
Hence the title above haha but I appreciate your blessings even though I don’t believe in that kind of thing.
An even longer-lasting way is to create genetics that are so exceptional they attract a loyal following, ensuring that, even after your passing, future generations of growers will continue to carry on the genetics.With multiple freezers banking seeds.
I feel you, I think the best way to save seeds is by keeping the parents who made the seeds alive but I’m terms of specifically keeping seeds already made preserved then I think the best way is the following:
Seeds separated in the amount of what’s preferred to use, so when accessing seeds only the seeds that will be used get subject to the change in temperature, humidity, and resulting condensation. So for example, if saving 1000 seeds, break them up in groups of 50-100 or something like that and package them separately when going into storage. I think it’s ideal to store some in a freezer (frost free), and some in the refrigerator. Ideally with redundancy by having them stored in multiple locations in the same aforementioned ways, some in the freezer and some in the refrigerator.
A significant aspect to storing seeds effectively is bringing them down to an ideal moisture content before storing, 6%-12% depending on the variety and the size of seeds. I like using glass ampoules.
Here’s a thread that has a decent amount of discussion on the topic already:
I listened to Jeff Lowenfels describe/explain the layer of bacteria the plant locks into each seed during production. This serves as an innoculate of key microbes for the rhizophagy process in the new soil the seed is sown in. I have been thinking about this in terms of germination and storage. I know (first hand) seeds need to be throughly dry to not mold inside containers after chop, but I wonder if (after a throughly initial dry) a less overly dry and dessicated environment wouldn’t serve better to preserve the bacterial innoculant. I know 98 percent of folks say cool and dry but I don’t necessarily understand the sciece behind that recommendation.
@CocoaCoir That seeds potential is limited by the actions of the beholder. If someone is merely collecting “preservation run” beans like pogs & pokemon then there is no potential. My point was really hinting that these so called preservationists are calling it the wrong thing.
On the other hand… Someone with knowledge on Mendelian inheritance and a grasp on the generational transmission of alleles would be able to do the most with that “potential”.
It’s disheartening that we learned about these genetic inheritance facts in grade school way back in the 80s.
But each successive generation of kids understands less and less about genetic transmission , recessive traits and recombination.
I don’t think anyone in the distant future will want our freezer beans. Scientists might want to look back at them but next-generation stoners will favor seeds to be individually tailor engineered by AI without any chance of viroids.
Howdy @Cleghorn, this is why the only true way to preserve a cannabis seed line is to save the parents which made the seeds, so they can be made over and over again from the same generic inputs. For example, DJ Short Blueberry and Flo made with the same parents since decades ago.
If trying to preserve seeds that are already made the way you’re taking about, it’s impossible because it’s a finite resource and eventually they will all be used. And if they’re not used the seeds themselves can technically be considered being preserved but that different than preserving a seed line or specific variety at a given point in time. For example, a specific F generation or BX generation with unique population fitness. So one can either improve (or not) the line, but like you say, that’s the resulting populations evolving and it’s different than preserving. The only true way to preserve a seedline is to keep the original parents alive so the seeds can can continually be reproduced.
If preserving seeds already made, that can be done but preserving takes on a different meaning in that context. Preserving in that context relates to storing them so they can be germinated at later date, but given the finite nature of a given seed stock, once they’re germinated they’re no longer being preserved. At that point they’re set in motion to continue evolving, whether that’s improving or getting worse as it relates to population fitness and desired attributes. Many blessings and much love
You’re either preserving individual seeds, or preserving the line at a given point in time and space. They are mutually exclusive ideas. Many blessings and much love
I didn’t misinterpret it.
I just read it for what it said in a literal sense.
But you cannot recreate the original Ommp BB clone even if you have both P1 parents dj used.
You cannot facilitate the size of hunt that would find another identical.
And that has nothing to do with freezing seeds for decades instead of f2ing,f3ing etc.
The so-called seed increase preservation runs are not preserving anything. They are making changes which aren’t necessarily better.
Then they attach the original name to something entirely different than what it was bred from. That is misleading and misinformation for the future of cannabis.
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