Here is a finished technique I came to have amazing success with.
I hope whoever comes looking for help to get their seeds started, finds this and has as much success as I have. Thank you for everything OG community. I love you all
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Well here’s the entire Tek I designed. I just copy and pasted it from my notes. Its a bit long, but I tried to make sure it was clear to understand, that any tips/notes were included, and that I didn’t forget anything.
Need a Few Things
- Organic Earth Worm Castings
(I used Organic worm castings from Home Depot. They came in a yellow bag. Cost about 9 dollars and I think it’s a 8 pound bag ? But if you have fresh even better.)
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Hydrogen Peroxide 3%
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Spring Water
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Small seed soak container with lid
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Small Rubbermaid container with lid
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Spray bottle
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Veg light (low watt)
(Optional)
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Sandpaper
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Heat mat for Worm Casting Bins & Soak Containers to sit on.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me 
This Is a Copy From My Notes
Okay it’s a bit long, but it’s hard to simplify it. 5 or 6 members had some beans from the 70s that nobody could get to open. Im not sure which methods they tried, but when I received some to test my luck I tried maybe 8 or 9 different teks from online, and used more than 50 or so beans, but nothing worked for me. So I decided to put a few ideas together, tweaked some stuff a bit, and it worked perfectly. But this is the Tek I designed and use to open older seeds.
First I made a Diluted H202 solution. Easy.
My Hydrogen Peroxide Solution
2 Tablespoons of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide Mixed with
2 Cups of Spring water
My Simple Tek
I use small plastic containers from the dollar tree to do a soak in a heavily diluted H202 solution for up to 10 - 14 hours. Or untill it sinks with a heavy shake.
The H202 causes seeds to float, so it’s important to start doing a shake every hour after about 8 hours of soaking.
As soon as they sink I take them out.
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After 14 hours I remove them even if they haven’t sunk.
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If they don’t sink it dosnt mean their bad so use them anyway.
It certainly won’t happen for every viable seed.
-But if it does sink, remove it from soak or it will drown and die.
- Ive also been seeing that placing Soak Containers on a heat mat helps. I have even seen a few seeds pushing out a root after only a 6 hour soak when they were placed on the heat mat to soak.
They were different strains, and one was 5 yo, and the other was around 2 yo.
After The Soak
- From the soak to sink I do a quick tap/spring water wash. Just dump the H202 out and fill the small container with tap water, shake, dump, repeat.
Then I place them all in a small dollar tree Rubbermaid container with a lid containing EWC from the day before.
*So the day before, while seeds were soaking, I took a small, square Rubbermaid container from the dollar tree. (the ones that are like 4 x 4 or smaller. They come in 4 or 5 packs)
I placed some Organic Earth Worm Castings in the bottom of it. Only about an inch deep. I then sprayed down to field capacity with Tap or spring water from a mister.
*My thumb is almost exactly an inch to the first joint, so really place about a half inch to a full inch of EWC in it and mist it. Then put the cover on tight and let it sit in a warm place overnight.
The next day I take the seeds and just place then directly from the rinse, on to the TOP of the EWC.
DON’T bury it at all. Just rest them on top. Give them a mist, and then cover with the lid. Leave it in a warm, dark area and just LITFA. They should pop in 24 - 48 hours. I’ve had some pop almost a week later, but I’ve had seeds over 50 years old pop open in 24 hours this way. They acted like they were just made.
The same seeds wouldn’t pop in any other tek I tried before this. I tried maybe 9 other teks with no success. This one thou, this gave me a 98% success rate on the older seeds of several strains.
Transferring Seeds to Soil
Now also just as important is how you plant them. After the seeds show a tap root from 0.5 to 1 inch long, I carefully transfer them to a seed start mix in a solo cup.
The important thing here is NOT to bury the seeds completely.
Just bury the tap root, leave the shell ABOVE the soil.
*Older seeds don’t have a lot of energy left in them, so sometimes you can get a root, but they won’t be able to push through the soil. So I bury them up to the shell, mist em a few times, and place a Ziploc bag over the top of the solo cup. That’s it.
I’ve had great success this way, and it’s easy to do. I use it for ALL seeds I want to start now.
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If you do the soak, then it is important to rinse
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Even if you choose not to follow this guide, and do not do a soa, quickly washing any of your seeds with the hydrogen peroxide solution, and then rising them with water is something you should consider.
The Hydrogen Peroxide is used to kill and clean off any molds or fungus spores that may be on seeds. -
Use this rinse especially for seeds made outdoors. They are more prone to collecting all sorts of spores on them.
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These spores or fungus will lead to killing off your seedlings, and is the reason behind why some seedlings dampen off at the stem and die.
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Again, not necessarily, but it helps keep your beans clean and your seedlings from dampening off.
Planting Seeds
I always only bury seeds up to the shell.
New or old.
Like I said, I’ve had beans from the 70s open for me in 24 hours where all other teks I tried failed. 7 of 8 popped within 24 hours, and the 8th popped within 48.
But just leave them in there untill you have a long enough tap root. And if it’s been a few days just let it sit. Some older beans I had took a little over a week before they opened up, so give them time. But besides that exception, everything has popped within 48 hours.
*Also optionally, some people liked to sand down your seeds before the soak. Just make sure to keep an eye on them in the soak container.
As soon as they sink, they are good to go. If you leave them for to long after they sink, they can drown.
- These are the size of the containers I use for the soaks. I grabbed an 8 pack at a dollar store.
Any craft store should have these as well.
- These are the containers I use for the mini WC bins. Found a 5 pack at the dollar store as well.
They sell smaller containers like this too, and they come in ten packs.
- Should look like this after a day or two.
Happy Growing !!
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-Happy