Will Cannabis Genetics Be Restricted?<

How To Correctly Keep Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds, with their hard outer shell, look pretty hardy. And while nature has certainly designed them to last through various variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren’t immune. Rapid changes in temperature and excessive humidity, for example, can rapidly ruin a batch of seeds. Luckily, looking after your seeds is straightforward. Keep reading to discover how.

Your Seeds Are Alive

Lots of people forget this, but it’s worth remembering: your cannabis seeds are active organisms. Before they germinate, however, they are in dormant rest, similar to some animals when they hibernate. And like all organisms, seeds can expire. When preserving your seeds, you’ll want to give them the best conditions to make sure they last until you’re ready to sprout and plant them.

Ideal Conditions for Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds have four primary enemies:

1. Humidity
2. Temperature
3. Light
4. Oxygen

Optimally, you want to preserve your seeds in cool, https://nativesusa.com/ — https://nativesusa.com/, dark, and dry place. When possible, keep your seeds in their factory packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we’ve carefully designed our packaging to safeguard our seeds until you’re ready to germinate them.

If your seeds get subjected to light or rapid changes in temperature, these conditions will cause them to deplete their nutrient stores before they ever touch soil, meaning they won’t have the nutrition they need to sprout. Elevated humidity, on the other hand, can cause fungi to form on your seeds.

Effects of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds

Humidity is easily one of the greatest threats to your seeds. Here is how different levels of humidity (% relative humidity) impact your cannabis seeds:

Looking for advice on managing humidity for your plants? The Grow Guide offers key tips for maintaining healthy development environments.

Storage Methods to Store Your Cannabis Seeds

For short-term storage, dim cupboard or drawer with consistent temperatures is usually fine. Try to keep your seeds away from areas of your house that are affected by the typical temperature changes of your local environment.

If, for example, you are in an area with very high daytime temperatures and cold nights, try to safeguard your seeds from these changes and don’t place them outside in a shed or garage.

For long-term storage, it’s ideal to keep your seeds with a desiccant, such as silica gel, in sealed container inside the refrigerator. Remember that accessing the door of your fridge can actually produce some pretty dramatic temperature shifts. If you happen to have an additional fridge that gets accessed less often than the one in your kitchen, use that one to keep your seeds.

Again, when possible, keep your seeds in their factory packaging. If you do unseal a pack of seeds and have leftovers, transfer the remaining seeds directly into sealed container.

Ziplock bags, for example, are great because you can extract all the air from them to form nearly vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once vacuum-sealed, put your bag inside opaque plastic bag or dark container to protect your seeds from your fridge light.

Dry fridges are the ideal to store seeds. The problem is when there is dampness in the fridge, since humidity is the biggest enemy for seeds (more dangerous than temperature, light, oxygen…). For this reason, it is preferable to store the seeds in No Frost fridges.

Can You Store Seeds in the Freezer?

Yes, cannabis seeds can be stored in the freezer. The lower the temperature, the less quickly they decline. However, it’s usually not required to freeze your seeds. Maintain the conditions we described above, and you should be able to preserve your seeds for up to 5 years and still get high germination rate.

Understanding Which Seeds to Grow and Which to Store

When you’re ready to germinate your seeds, examine them and germinate any seeds with issues to the outer shell first. The outer shell of your seeds is built to protect the sensitive genetics inside. Seeds with cracks in the outer shell are far more vulnerable and won’t be stored.

At Royal Queen Seeds, we pride ourselves in our work and want to guarantee every grower only has the best genetics in their garden. That means we check all of our seeds before shipping. If you find any damage to your RQS seeds, get in touch with our support team immediately.

Tips for Germinating Old Cannabis Seeds

We’ve all located an odd seed somewhere at the depths of an old drawer or cupboard. Here are several tips on how to germinate weed seeds:

Soaking with enriched carbonated water

Before germinating your old seeds, try soaking them in carbonated water enriched with fulvic acid, boosters, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For top results, use room temperature water and soak your seeds for twelve hours in dim place.

Scar your seeds

Aged seeds often have extremely tough outer shell. Carefully scratching this shell with light sandpaper can help moisture and warmth penetrate your seed at the time of germination. Try lightly scarring your old cannabis seeds just before soaking to help them germinate.

Take off a seed’s ridge

The ridge is the somewhat elevated side of your seed. Like other parts of the shell, this ridge can become extremely tough over time. Taking off it gently with a sharp Stanley blade can help your seed germinate.

Cut open your seed

In final attempt to grow your seeds, creating small cut in the seed’s shell may help. However, this is no miracle cure, and you’ll need to be cautious to avoid hurting the inside of your seed. If you hurt the embryo, the seed will never sprout.

Remember, some old seeds just won’t sprout no matter how long you try. When possible, avoid buying more seeds than you intend to plant so as to avoid having any issues at the time of germination.