I have been germinating seeds for about a year now, and in my experience the packaging date would bring a world of change at the time of planting our beloved seeds.
I had problems with a few seed packs, Mephisto 3Bears OG (they sent repos), Crockett’s Double Tangie Banana (0 out of 12), Humboldt’s Blue Dream Auto (0 out of 3), GreenHouse’s Super Lemon Haze (2 out of 6), CannaBioGen’s Punto Rojo (2 out of 7, sent repos but got seized), GreenHouse’s Green-O-Matic (0 out of 3), and also the freenies i got with my every purchase, i probably germinated 20 seeds in their unique solo baggies they come, but out of those i harvested only three seeds. Check the thread for the 16oz cup we had and you’ll see.
Having dates on seed packs would encourage prices to be more competitive in order to get rid of them quicker, no one would buy old seeds, also if the seeds are fresh you may find out about what happened if a seed pack doesn’t give results, irradiation, extreme heat, adverse conditions and such.
IMHO, we are being cheated by BIG seed banks into buying very old seeds but they don’t tell us about it.
It must be something with the seeds being shipped to you. The environment, handling, or possible irradiation. I’ve only ever had a few seeds not germinate for me over the years. Never have I had 0/0 germinate, but I did go 1/10 on my Lowryder mix from Seedsman.
I had really bad pop rates with cult classic seeds. One out of seven but I don’t think their age played a roll in it honestly. Also I’ve got 6 yr old seeds that still give 80% pop rate (takes a lit longer). I don’t store them in any special way or anything. So imo bad seeds are in part bc of a bad grow/bad breeding. Yet I agree 100% there’s no reason not to put a born on date on them.
Some breeders already do this, sweet seeds being one that pops to mind straight away (shame I am not a fan of crap euro $em seeds).
But the reality is, in a market that is globally a grey area at best, you cannot expect something like dated seed packages. There is no regulation, and pushing morality won’t work thats why industries have regulation.
Seeds I’ve had in the fridge for 10+ years still have 90+% germ rate. Ones I’ve stored for half that time at room temp are infinitely harder to germinate due to hardened shells.
When a seed doesn’t germinate in a cup of water, that doesn’t mean it’s not viable. Sometimes they require some manual abrasion to the shell.
I agree though. If someone is selling a seed, it should germinate without help.
yes i’ve heard of people cracking open seeds with their teeth or something to get them to germinate. i just received some ga3 from china to help with germinating some old seeds if they give me trouble. i wonder if CR customs irradiates their incoming mail??
when i compared CR to Australia for bringing along my pitbulls:
Aus: (smuggle only due to breed, possibly forge vet papers–“he’s a mutt”)
CR: some pesos per lb. of animal… didn’t seem to be any species restrictions
(“it’s a hairy alligator”)
I wouldn’t be surprised if your mail was irradiated. I would assume they would need to be very careful of hitchhikers coming into a tropical area. You also have the drastic changes in temp and humidity depending where and what time of year they had been ordered. IMO freebies that the seed bank give away are old stock they need to get rid of, not including breeder promos. My only time I had troubles germinating seeds was my first year back at it.
How many techniques for germination have you tried?
What’s funny is, if you go to my Germination thread you will see a very high rate of germination with all my seeds. Over 90% of them. Soaking, paper towels and then the medium.
One can always make a mistake, but then you do things one way all the time and 90% or more of the time it works, seems to me the problem is not with the method but with the resources available.
Costa Rica is a third world country with no cutting edge technology available, at least not for your regular public employee. Thinking they irradiate the seeds is far fetched simply because they do not have a machine that can do that. That would implicate 2 things, 1. that they know the contents of the package (maybe they have clairvoyant savant that picks them out of the bunch) and 2. that they would have the budget to irradiate packages when suspicious…
If anybody here has ever been to Costa Rica, you wold know that is not plausible at all.
@Pjhunt78, not going against you personally, just illustrating why your thesis would noty apply on this scenario. Thanks by the way.
If the seeds are yours i will betcha they germinate even after 10 years bro… Nice Stickers!
It would show dedication and professionalism, something almost no one has nowadays. The right thing is the last thing people would do, unless they have no choice. Plus they would have to discard the old seeds, and that means throwing away money, they would much rather have us customers spend time and money on seeds that are not worth it. I mean, what’s gonna happen to them??? Nothing, that is what.
I am seriously thinking of making seeds with Mr. B, BOG and LED seed packs that i have bought, cross them and find new phenos and all. But as far as buying seeds from seed banks, i think i might be just about done.
I know sdubb and ogkb seeds and some of riots gear has issues popping. This is supposed to help in that respect. Although it doesn’t address older seeds.
Costa Rica does food irradiation, so the technology is absolutely there didn’t the seeds also go through Miami? A major mail hub would have that tech. It would have nothing to do with them knowing what is in the package. I scoped out your germination thread, there seamed to be a lot of singles and freebies. They are given away for a reason and singles are the same way. Generally people don’t have this many issues with germinating, even with old stock. Trying to figure out a reason that wouldn’t be user error.
I think so too. I had only happen that with the singles and a couple of bad packs. But i have germinated a whole bunch. I was just suggesting it would be thoughful of the seed banks to implement seed dates on packages.
