Help with old seeds?

[phrozen87]

Hi rollitup. First let me start off saying that this isnt my first round of growing, i"ve done about three. I just completed a grow of delicious seeds cotton candy. Still a noob, i know. anyways i have 12 seeds of different strains, the seeds are about 2 or 3 years old. I have been trying to germinate some off and on for the past month. I wasted 6 seeds trying to get them growing. Out of 6, only one seed didnt pop. This is pretty much where the journey ends. The 5 seeds that did have the tail show, the tails didnt grow after coming out of the shell. I soak the seeds in water for 12-24 hours and then straight to a moist paper towel inside of a ziplock back to keep moister in between 2 paper plates. (this is where the seeds pop and tails shows) I left about half in to see if it gets any longer, but it doesnt. So i plant them in jiffy organic seed starter mix in solo party cups with a plastic wandwhich bag over it (to keep in humidity, i even put one in a rapid rooter and a cfl about 6 inches away for added heat since the seeds are covered. But nothing grows. After a week i dig them up and see that the taproot just died off. Anyways i was wondering if soaking them in a mix of seaweed extract (maxicrop) and water would help with the taproot not growing and would help to get a seedling going. Or would Fulvic acid be better? Sorry this is so long, just wanted to make sure i got everything. I have been searching the net the past week and havent really found anything. Any tips would be awsome, Thanks

 

[phrozen87]

The temp in the room is between 80-85 F

 

[phrozen87]

Anyone ever use maxicrop to germinate before?

 

[ODanksta]

Get some Tupperware line the walls with sand paper.. Stir for about 30 seconds then germinate..

 

[phrozen87]

I'm not having problems getting them to pop though. It's once the taproot shows, it stops growing. So I get no sprout

 

[SwankyDank]

Are the seeds breaking open at all?

 

[Gquebed]

I'm not having problems getting them to pop though. It's once the taproot shows, it stops growing. So I get no sprout

If the old seeds are popping and then dying out there not much you can do, assuming the conditions are right for the seedling to get going. Sounds to me like youre smothering it.

Keep it simple. Drop the popped seeds in a solo cup and keep the temp round 80 and dont over water. I had great success with 25 year old seeds still doing fine...never did anything special. But a lot of them just wont grow.

 

[BobCajun]

Hi rollitup. First let me start off saying that this isnt my first round of growing, i"ve done about three. I just completed a grow of delicious seeds cotton candy. Still a noob, i know. anyways i have 12 seeds of different strains, the seeds are about 2 or 3 years old. I have been trying to germinate some off and on for the past month. I wasted 6 seeds trying to get them growing. Out of 6, only one seed didnt pop. This is pretty much where the journey ends. The 5 seeds that did have the tail show, the tails didnt grow after coming out of the shell. I soak the seeds in water for 12-24 hours and then straight to a moist paper towel inside of a ziplock back to keep moister in between 2 paper plates. (this is where the seeds pop and tails shows) I left about half in to see if it gets any longer, but it doesnt. So i plant them in jiffy organic seed starter mix in solo party cups with a plastic wandwhich bag over it (to keep in humidity, i even put one in a rapid rooter and a cfl about 6 inches away for added heat since the seeds are covered. But nothing grows. After a week i dig them up and see that the taproot just died off. Anyways i was wondering if soaking them in a mix of seaweed extract (maxicrop) and water would help with the taproot not growing and would help to get a seedling going. Or would Fulvic acid be better? Sorry this is so long, just wanted to make sure i got everything. I have been searching the net the past week and havent really found anything. Any tips would be awsome, Thanks

Old seeds often lack the vigor to crack the shell completely open. This is where you have to play Dr. You gotta operate to save the baby, meaning get a magnifying eyepiece and pry the shell open to get one side of it off.

If it still can't even get out of the membrane, you'll have to do a more risky procedure, the membrane removal operation. Once the embryo is free of the membrane it's pretty much home free. You'll see a perfect little plantlet. You just have to baby it from there, putting a clear dome over it until it's up and green. If you snap the root tip off during the operation the patient will die. I've tried to nurse de-tipped embryos to grow roots farther up but they never do, it just rots. Their entire existence depends on that root tip.

 

[WhatDoYouWantFromLife]

Old seeds often lack the vigor to crack the shell completely open. This is where you have to play Dr. You gotta operate to save the baby, meaning get a magnifying eyepiece and pry the shell open to get one side of it off.

If it still can't even get out of the membrane, you'll have to do a more risky procedure, the membrane removal operation. Once the embryo is free of the membrane it's pretty much home free. You'll see a perfect little plantlet. You just have to baby it from there, putting a clear dome over it until it's up and green. If you snap the root tip off during the operation the patient will die. I've tried to nurse de-tipped embryos to grow roots farther up but they never do, it just rots. Their entire existence depends on that root tip.

One of the best answers to a question I have seen here. Great job.

 

[BobCajun]

One of the best answers to a question I have seen here. Great job.

Thanks. Getting the embryo out of the membrane capsule is actually quite tricky. But know what the weird thing is? Nobody ever wrote a guide about helping Cannabis embryos out of their shells and capsules before. Comes in handy if you only have a few seeds.

 

[SwankyDank]

Yes, exactly what BobCajun wrote.

Through trial-and-error I have found that the tip of a safety pin is a great tool for this kind of work. Just the right amount of flexibility with the body of the pin providing weight and a nice grip. The pin does most of the work as long as I can keep it steady.

Also, I have had seedlings survive even after what seems like a disaster... both of the seed leaves snapping off. Somehow the stem greens up and produces true leaves from the spot where the break occurred.