@misterbee Would you recommend Willow bark powder to the lentil/bean mix, if so, what amount?
Hope the Blueberry blast and grape krush germ well! heard a lot of good about those.
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@ClassicGenetix if you get to the blueberry blast sometime soon and plan on making some f2 lmk I have 5 seeds I can contribute was going to add them to my blueberry hill run but decided it would be best to wait till I could keep a male and make some more of them being one of his more popular breeding selections but wouldn’t be able to get to them for awhile
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True, but you don’t have to sterilize them to kill the nasties. I have a tek for prepping horseshit as a substrate for shroomies, and the goal is to have the jars hit a temp of 150-170, and hold there for an hour.
I think it would work pretty much the same for castings.
Horse Shit Tek
Load your field capacity compost/manure into quart jars and place in the PC.
Fill with COLD water 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the jars. Place the jars in your PC.
Cover and turn on the stove. Do not place the weight on your pc. Leave the vent open.
Allow the water to come to a boil where you can feel steam escaping from the vent hole.
Allow steam to escape for five minutes, but no longer.
Shut off the stove and leave the PC alone for 1/2 an hour.
Then repeat the process…bring it back up to a boil.
Allow steam to escape for five minutes, but no longer.
Shut off the stove and leave the PC alone for 2 hours.
At that time, you can remove the jars and they’ll be just right.
I’ve used this tek for years, and the interior of the jars will reach 150F for an hour, but never exceed 170F.
The tek uses a pressure cooker, but never actually puts the jars under pressure, so I don’t see why a stock pot with a lid wouldn’t achieve the same results. Start with cold water, bring it to a boil for 5 minutes, and so on.
It also talks about field capacity. It’s a rough measurement of how much water is in a substrate(?). 
Basically, if something’s at FC, it’s about as moist as a damp sponge. If you lightly squeeze it, nothing comes out. If you squeeze it hard, you should get a few drops, at most a small stream that quickly turns to drops. If you squeeze it hard and get a solid stream, it’s too wet.
There’s also this thread, Germinating old Seeds, that covers a lot of different germination methods.
Hope some of this helps.
Happy cracking. 
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That process sounds like pasteurization. I think it would kill almost all bacteria and fungi, except very thermophillic species and those surviving via spores. No idea what the impact would be on the seed starting process - I don’t know if enzymes or non-thermophillic bacteria are needed for that. But if the benefits are due to some type of bacteria or enzyme, the pasteurization may greatly slow or eliminate them.
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Yeah, it basically is. I’ve prepared starter soil using that method, and it works great for seedlings. I’ve never tried to start seeds in it, though. 
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I do a similar method, mine is small mason jars and a toaster oven. I also germ in a paper towel in the jar.
So just temp sterilize germ jar, water(i use distilled), soil in said jars. Once everything is cooled to room temp add some water and seeds(peroxide cleaned) to germ jar and close up. Once tails are 1/4 to 1/2 they move to the sterilized soil.
This has dramatically increased my success on seeds of all kinds. The only limiting factor is stored energy, if the seeds are too tired this method cant change that. I am going to start very soon with a pre soak before my germ method. Plenty of old seeds to test on!
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With milk recall they were just talking about pasteurizing
“161 degrees for 15 seconds” says Sanjay Gupta on CNN today
I found this
“Heat milk to 145°F (63°C) for at least 30 minutes, or 161°F (72°C) for at least 15 seconds.”
Yeah, this is great …not killing everything just the bad stuff(?)
Makes more sense when you think about spores…works for them
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Anyone had many break thru using a seed cracker?
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not killing everything just the bad stuff(?)
I think it kills almost everything, which happens to include the common spoilage organisms. The spores of some bad and good organisms will remain and can repopulate, but it takes a fair amount of time.
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I bought one and tried it on some of his old stuff and I didn’t see any better results than the other methods I tried, like scuffing, worm castings ect, but those beans were dead and no method worked so I can’t really say it hurt the germ rates because they were all 0% lol
Now I’d be curious to try it if I had some beans with confirmed low germ rates and compare those results.
I do have quite a few snow mountain beans that I expect to have low rates, so I’ll give some a crack when I get to them as well.
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This is the best method?
I have DNA genetics x18 pure paki.
1 pack died off. Sprouts came up nothing more than the the cotyledon no growth after …waited weeks.
Any advice…lol
I would like to get them going and healthy
Understand what happened to the seeds when John was still holding them. His ‘fast’ method of harvesting seeds was to use dry ice. No wonder it is hard to get them going.
I have posted my method for old seeds before. First a soak 1/15 in hydrogen peroxide from the drug store. Then go find an aloe plant and cut a leaf. After soaking and rinsing then cut a slit and let them soak in that juice for several hours. Rinse again and find a small plastic bowl. Put worm castings in the bowl. Fresh are best but store bought works less effectively. Make sure the castings are damp. Put the seeds in and cover with plastic. Set the bowl covered onto your modem after you have put some paper on the modem where you set the bowl. This way it doesn’t get too hot.
I took 12 year old seeds (that were refrigerated) and they popped tails in 2-3 days. If they don’t pop don’t get in a hurry. If they weren’t treated right they will balk at popping but often will if you wait.
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