Methods To Correctly Preserve Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds, with their hard outer shell, appear pretty hardy. And while nature has clearly designed them to last through many variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren't indestructible. Rapid changes in temperature and elevated humidity, for example, can quickly ruin a batch of seeds. Luckily, caring for your seeds is easy. Keep reading to discover how.

Your Seeds Are Alive

Many people forget this, but it's real: your cannabis seeds are alive organisms. Before they sprout, however, they are in a state of rest, similar to some animals when they hibernate. And like all life forms, seeds can die. When preserving your seeds, you'll want to give them the ideal conditions to guarantee they remain viable until you're ready to plant and plant them.

Ideal Conditions for Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds have four main enemies:

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

Ideally, you want to store your seeds in a cool, dark, and moisture-free place. When possible, keep your seeds in their original packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we've carefully designed our packaging to protect our seeds until you're ready to grow them.

If your seeds get subjected to light or rapid changes in temperature, these conditions will trigger them to use up their nutrient stores before they ever reach soil, meaning they won't have the nutrients they need to germinate. Excessive humidity, on the flip side, can encourage fungi to grow on your seeds.

Influence of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds

Humidity is definitely one of the biggest threats to your seeds. Here is how varying levels of humidity (% relative humidity) influence your cannabis seeds:

Seeking advice on handling humidity for your plants? The Grow Guide offers key tips for maintaining healthy cultivation environments.

How and Where to Store Your Cannabis Seeds

For brief storage, dark cupboard or drawer with stable temperatures is typically fine. Try to keep your seeds away from areas of your house that are prone to the typical temperature changes of your area environment.

If, for example, you live in an area with very high daytime temperatures and cold nights, try to protect your seeds from these changes and don't place them outside in garages or garage.

For extended storage, it's ideal to keep your seeds with desiccants, such as silica gel, in an airtight container inside the refrigerator. Remember that opening the door of your fridge can actually create some pretty dramatic temperature shifts. If you own have a second fridge that gets accessed less often than the one in your kitchen, choose that one to preserve your seeds.

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

Ziplock bags, for example, are excellent because you can extract all the air from them to create an almost vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once packaged, put your bag inside a dark plastic bag or opaque container to guard your seeds from your refrigerator light.

Low-humidity fridges are the ideal to store seeds. The problem is when there is moisture in the fridge, since humidity is the worst enemy for seeds (more dangerous than temperature, light, oxygen...). For this reason, it is recommended to store the seeds in No Frost fridges.

Can You Preserve Seeds in the Freezer?

Yes, cannabis seeds can be kept in the freezer. The colder the temperature, the more gradually they decline. However, it's generally not necessary to freeze your seeds. Follow the conditions we detailed above, and you should be able to maintain your seeds for up to half a decade and still get high germination rate.

Knowing Which Seeds to Germinate and Which to Store

When you're ready to sprout your seeds, check them and germinate any seeds with issues to the outer shell first. The outer shell of your seeds is made to protect the volatile genetics inside. Seeds with damage in the outer shell are far more vulnerable and https://nativesusa.com/ (https://nativesusa.com/) shouldn't be stored.

At Royal Queen Seeds, we excel in our work and want to ensure every grower only has the top genetics in their garden. That means we inspect all of our seeds before packing. If you notice any damage to your RQS seeds, get in touch with our customer service team immediately.

Techniques for Germinating Aged Cannabis Seeds

We've all located random seed somewhere at the back of an old drawer or cupboard. Here are a few tips on how to grow weed seeds:

Pre-treatment with enriched carbonated water

Before growing your old seeds, try immersing them in carbonated water enhanced with fulvic acid, boosters, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For optimal results, use lukewarm water and soak your seeds for twelve hours in dark place.

Scar your seeds

Older seeds often have extremely tough outer shell. Gently scratching this shell with some sandpaper can help water and warmth penetrate your seed at the time of germination. Try lightly scarring your old cannabis seeds just before submerging to help them grow.

Take off your seed's ridge

The ridge is the slightly elevated side of your seed. Like sections of the shell, this ridge can become extremely tough over time. Removing it gently with a sharp Stanley blade can help your seed germinate.

Score open your seed

In desperate attempt to germinate your seeds, creating tiny cut in the shell may help. However, this is no magic solution, and you'll need to be careful to avoid harming the inside of your seed. If you damage the embryo, the seed will never germinate.

Remember, some old seeds just won't germinate no matter how much you try. If possible, avoid getting more seeds than you will plant so as to avoid having any problems at the time of germination.