Trove of 1970's 'bag seed' ...this could be fun.

[Bagginski]

...and the bags are not so "seedy" any more

For me, this makes the rare modern bagseed a kind of treasure chest: how many clone-onlies are the result of a single seed fished out of a bag of Bud? I believe Gorilla glue is one, I know I’ve heard of others.

Since the general indoor-era of Bud production ‘took over’, I’ve found two seeds. That’s it: a year or so ago, I found two seed-halves, torn apart in the grinder. The seed showing within the shell was full, plump, completely ripe.

I was much more careful with the rest of that bag, and I found one more. Intact, dark, plump, glossy. I put it aside & I’m taking good care of it. Sure, it might be nothing, but I’m still curious

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Those 70’s seeds were hardy. They would grow in car floorboards. For those who vacuumed, they ended up growing around the car-vacs at the car wash. Seems like people would smoke anything back then, too. Stems, leaves, male, female. It’s all different now. I bet growing those 70’s seeds with modern lighting, good soil and nutes, controlled watering, and proper curing, you will probably get a different product than your cousin had!

We'll see...First step is to see if I can get any to germinate. I'm usually a 'put the seed in the dirt' kind of guy, but in this case, I'll start with a quantity soaked in a peroxide solution then the warm/wet paper towel method. If that doesn't work, I'll move on to Ga3 and see if I can do anything. According to him, the bag he sent a picture of was one of a handful he's got stored in his basement/wine cellar.

 

[waterproof808]

usually you need to use tissue culture techniques to sprout seeds that old.

 

[MinniePerlite]

add some shag carpet to the walls of the grow room too.

Gold shag carpet

 

[MinniePerlite]

In the words of an old hippie I knew in the 80’s, “It’s like I always say. You never can tell.”

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Just grabbed the mail & as promised, a few spoonfuls of seeds. I'll start in the next couple days with trying to soften/germinate a number of them. The first round, I'll just go get some 'fresh' peroxide and use a solution with that. From there, if there's no lovin', I'll use some rooting hormone, purposefully made seed starter, and work my way up the ladder of options.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

So, first round of this little game.

After reading a bit, I have a bunch of strategies to play with.



This 'round' I decided to try a peroxide/water soak (People variously talk about 12 or 24 hours for older seeds). So we're working with a fresh bottle of 3% and a ratio of 6:1 water/peroxide...I have both gel and powder rooting hormone in the wings too, but I think I'll do the soak first then tumble them in some of the powder for the paper towel method of germinating.



I poured out 35 seeds to start. You can see that some are big and dark (more desirable in the growing world), but also some lighter/smaller. That's fine since the bigger ones will have harder/thicker shells and the smaller ones will have thinner coatings.

I gave every one a peremptory and brief sandpaper massage to help get moisture into the seeds. One of the 35 disintegrated upon handling, one looks a bit rough, so really 33 seeds.



Someone suggested using carbonated water and that CO2 may help soften the shells, I had some (and have many more seeds to play with for other rounds) so why not. Not surprised they're all floating. We'll see how the look in 12 hours and go from there. They've all been swirled about in the solution and are in a warm (mid 70's dark cabinet until tomorrow.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Also, I can go some rounds and see what I get, but no worries...if none of this works, I have 'new' seeds on hand...a bunch of stuff that I'm looking forward to growing as well. I was going to shut down the tent until the beginning of september anyway, so this is sort of a 'downtime' experiment.

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

So, first round of this little game.

After reading a bit, I have a bunch of strategies to play with.

View attachment 5165673

This 'round' I decided to try a peroxide/water soak (People variously talk about 12 or 24 hours for older seeds). So we're working with a fresh bottle of 3% and a ratio of 6:1 water/peroxide...I have both gel and powder rooting hormone in the wings too, but I think I'll do the soak first then tumble them in some of the powder for the paper towel method of germinating.

View attachment 5165677

I poured out 35 seeds to start. You can see that some are big and dark (more desirable in the growing world), but also some lighter/smaller. That's fine since the bigger ones will have harder/thicker shells and the smaller ones will have thinner coatings.

I gave every one a peremptory and brief sandpaper massage to help get moisture into the seeds. One of the 35 disintegrated upon handling, one looks a bit rough, so really 33 seeds.

View attachment 5165682

Someone suggested using carbonated water and that CO2 may help soften the shells, I had some (and have many more seeds to play with for other rounds) so why not. Not surprised they're all floating. We'll see how the look in 12 hours and go from there. They've all been swirled about in the solution and are in a warm (mid 70's dark cabinet until tomorrow.

What exactly is rooting hormone supposed to do for germinating seeds?

 

[Kerowacked]

Good luck, viable ones should sink tomorrow.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Good luck, viable ones should sink tomorrow.

Yeah, I'll give 12 hours and removed the ones that have sunk, then give what's left another 12. Even if I end up with only a few out of a few hundred seeds, I'd be happy with that. We'll see. My cousin (who provided the seeds) did comment when I followed up with these pics did say that he's happy for me to be trying and he'll provide however many seeds I want to try with.

 

[Flork]

I remember sitting around with friends in my early teens smoking a doobie of Columbian Gold and reading comic books back in the 70's.

Just had to get my old collection out. These are old reprints I bought circa 30 years ago to replace the ones I had in the late '60's to early '70's.



.

 

[Dorian2]

Good luck. I'm looking forward to see something positive happen with this. I'm fairly new to growing and all I could get my hands on in the 80's was hash for the most part. I have no clue what the standard strains of those days (Columbian, Mexican, Thai, etc....) were even like. Cool to see some historic weed possibilities for sure!!

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Good luck. I'm looking forward to see something positive happen with this. I'm fairly new to growing and all I could get my hands on in the 80's was hash for the most part. I have no clue what the standard strains of those days (Columbian, Mexican, Thai, etc....) were even like. Cool to see some historic weed possibilities for sure!!

We'll see. I have a few hundred seeds to play with now, and then there's thousands more. Hopefully I can get at least a few to go green. Eventually I may play a numbers game and try to hydrate/germinate much larger quantities at a time.

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

Yeah, I'll give 12 hours and removed the ones that have sunk, then give what's left another 12. Even if I end up with only a few out of a few hundred seeds, I'd be happy with that. We'll see. My cousin (who provided the seeds) did comment when I followed up with these pics did say that he's happy for me to be trying and he'll provide however many seeds I want to try with.

Give all the floaters a gentle tap. Remove the ones that sink and plant them.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

What exactly is rooting hormone supposed to do for germinating seeds?

Well, that was a new idea to me too, but not only did someone suggest it here, but I found it as a suggestion in multiple places online. I assume its the same mechanism that helps cuttings form roots, but beyond that, I can't lay claim. I happen to have both powder and gel on hand, so I might as well include it as a possibility.

Give all the floaters a gentle tap. Remove the ones that sink and plant them.

Yep, will do. I'll probably do a paper towel phase, which is something I don't normally do, but in this case it would be good to know if anything is active before sitting on a flat of soil for a few weeks without much going on. Word is that even with paper towels it can take a few weeks to get anything.

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

Well, that was a new idea to me too, but not only did someone suggest it here, but I found it as a suggestion in multiple places online. I assume its the same mechanism that helps cuttings form roots, but beyond that, I can't lay claim. I happen to have both powder and gel on hand, so I might as well include it as a possibility.



Yep, will do. I'll probably do a paper towel phase, which is something I don't normally do, but in this case it would be good to know if anything is active before sitting on a flat of soil for a few weeks without much going on. Word is that even with paper towels it can take a few weeks to get anything.

I wouldn’t take too much stock in bro science posted online.

I’ve found seeds of all types to germinate fast in paper towels. Although it’s tough to determine when seeds actually germinate under your medium.

 

[Bagginski]

So, first round of this little game.

After reading a bit, I have a bunch of strategies to play with.

View attachment 5165673

This 'round' I decided to try a peroxide/water soak (People variously talk about 12 or 24 hours for older seeds). So we're working with a fresh bottle of 3% and a ratio of 6:1 water/peroxide...I have both gel and powder rooting hormone in the wings too, but I think I'll do the soak first then tumble them in some of the powder for the paper towel method of germinating.

View attachment 5165677

I poured out 35 seeds to start. You can see that some are big and dark (more desirable in the growing world), but also some lighter/smaller. That's fine since the bigger ones will have harder/thicker shells and the smaller ones will have thinner coatings.

I gave every one a peremptory and brief sandpaper massage to help get moisture into the seeds. One of the 35 disintegrated upon handling, one looks a bit rough, so really 33 seeds.

View attachment 5165682

Someone suggested using carbonated water and that CO2 may help soften the shells, I had some (and have many more seeds to play with for other rounds) so why not. Not surprised they're all floating. We'll see how the look in 12 hours and go from there. They've all been swirled about in the solution and are in a warm (mid 70's dark cabinet until tomorrow.

Looks like you got 7 floaters there, maybe couple more

 

[CWF]

Best of luck. I have baggies of seed, as well as breeder packs from 10-30 years old, but all were improperly stored during a long period of my life due to ... "circumstances". Alas, none has ever sprouted for me, and I've tried most of the tricks. I'll be following this.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Update:



So, as close as I could come to 12 hours was 15.5. A quick swirl to drop any that were ready to drop, showed that the final count was 25 seeds that had sunk, 8 seeds that were still floating. Some seeds do look like they've slightly split a their seams as well.

I separated the sinkers from the swimers, and rinsed the sinkers in some fresh water to get rid of any residual peroxide solution. I then gave 'em a quick roll in the powdered rooting hormone. (I also did the same with the ones that didn't sink, but have them separated out, and will do the same process). Then it was into damp paper towels, a ziploc and a dark cabinet that's got temps in the 75-80 range.