Ways To Effectively Keep Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds, with their tough outer shell, appear pretty hardy. And while nature has certainly designed them to last through various variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren't immune. Quick changes in temperature and elevated humidity, for example, can easily ruin collections of seeds. Luckily, caring for your seeds is straightforward. Keep reading to discover how.

Your Seeds Are Alive

Lots of people forget this, but it's real: your cannabis seeds are active organisms. Before they grow, however, they are in dormant rest, similar to some animals when they sleep. And like all organisms, seeds can perish. When storing your seeds, you'll want to offer them the optimal conditions to make sure they remain viable until you're ready to plant and plant them.

Optimal Conditions for Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds have four key enemies:

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

Ideally, you want to preserve your seeds in cool, dark, and moisture-free place. Whenever possible, keep your seeds in their factory packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we've specially designed our packaging to protect our seeds until you're ready to grow them.

If your seeds get exposed to light or quick changes in temperature, these conditions will make them to use up their nutrient stores before they ever touch soil, meaning they won't have the nutrition they need to grow. High humidity, on the contrary, https://nativesusa.com/ (https://nativesusa.com/) can cause fungi to form on your seeds.

Effects of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds

Humidity is certainly one of the greatest threats to your seeds. Here is how various levels of humidity (% relative humidity) affect your cannabis seeds:

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

How and Where to Store Your Cannabis Seeds

For brief storage, a dark cupboard or drawer with steady temperatures is typically fine. Try to keep your seeds clear of areas of your house that are susceptible to the natural temperature changes of your area environment.

If, for example, you live in a region with very hot daytime temperatures and cold nights, try to shield your seeds from these changes and don't keep them outside in a shed or garage.

For extended storage, it's ideal to keep your seeds with moisture absorbers, such as silica gel, in a sealed container inside the refrigerator. Remember that accessing the door of your fridge can actually create some pretty significant temperature shifts. If you own have another fridge that gets used less often than the one in your kitchen, choose that one to keep your seeds.

Again, whenever possible, keep your seeds in their original packaging. If you do unseal packages of seeds and have leftovers, transfer the extra seeds directly into a sealed container.

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

Dry fridges are the top choice to store seeds. The problem is when there is moisture in the fridge, since humidity is the worst enemy for seeds (worse than temperature, light, oxygen...). For this reason, it is better to store the seeds in No Frost fridges.

Can You Keep 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 essential to freeze your seeds. Maintain the conditions we described above, and you should be able to maintain your seeds for up to half a decade and still get excellent germination rate.

Determining Which Seeds to Germinate and Which to Store

When you're ready to sprout your seeds, inspect them and germinate any seeds with damage to the outer shell first. The outer shell of your seeds is made to protect the volatile genetics inside. Seeds with breaks in the outer shell are much more vulnerable and shouldn't be stored.

At Royal Queen Seeds, we take pride in our work and want to guarantee every grower only has the top genetics in their garden. That means we examine all of our seeds before packaging. If you see any damage to your RQS seeds, contact with our support team immediately.

Methods for Germinating Aged Cannabis Seeds

We've all found stray seed somewhere at the bottom of forgotten drawer or cupboard. Here are a few tips on how to grow weed seeds:

Soaking with enriched carbonated water

Before sprouting your old seeds, try immersing them in carbonated water enhanced with fulvic acid, germination booster, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For top results, use ambient water and soak your seeds for half a day in dark place.

Score your seeds

Older seeds often have an extra tough outer shell. Lightly scratching this shell with some sandpaper can help humidity and warmth reach your seed at the time of germination. Try gently scarring your old cannabis seeds just before immersing to help them grow.

Take off a seed's ridge

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

Score open your seed

In a last attempt to sprout your seeds, creating tiny cut in the outer casing may help. However, this is no miracle cure, and you'll need to be gentle to avoid damaging the inside of your seed. If you hurt the embryo, the seed will never grow.

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 problems at the time of germination.