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 SpaceMonkey
Mind Pilot
Registered: 02/09/09
Posts: 3,471
Loc: Hawaiian Islands 
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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 Seed life 
#238630 - 06/11/09 02:39 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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I have been beginning to think i lost my green thumb. I have never had as hard a time trying to start some seed. The seeds were givin to me from a local grower,in a cardboard match box. All looked like good healthy mature seeds. My first attempt was just to plant the seeds in good soil and wait for them to sprout. 99% of my grows have been started this way. Anyways it has been 2 weeks and nothing coming up yet. So i try the old wet paper towel method, it has been almost 5 days with no signs of seed popping. Now through process of reasoning, i am wondering if these seeds sat too long and came non viable? I have had them for a year sitting in the matchbox in a dark dry place. Any idea's on how long seeds should last?
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 Don't Mistake My Kindness For Weakness
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ronjohn7779
Registered: 02/01/09
Posts: 36
Last seen: 14 years, 11 months
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In 1-2 years (depending on a lot of factors) your seeds will see a diminished germination rate. If you refrigerate them in a environment that is 37-48 degrees with 5% or less RH seeds can last 1-5 years (once again depending on a lot of factors). Generally though it's not that uncommon for seed to take a little while to germinate if they are a year old/to not germ at all. Usually though one or two grow just fine. So maybe you got a bad batch or they were old to begin with.
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SpaceMonkey
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Registered: 02/09/09
Posts: 3,471
Loc: Hawaiian Islands
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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thanks for the reply! Good information.
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Don't Mistake My Kindness For Weakness
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ronjohn7779
Registered: 02/01/09
Posts: 36
Last seen: 14 years, 11 months
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No prob. Also if you want to try this if you still are having a hard time having your seeds germ you could two pieces of sand paper and tape them in a match box. Then place your seeds and shake the match box. This will cause micro cut in the outer shell and it usually helps speed up germination. Sometimes when a seed gets too old it's shell will harden up a bit so this can and usually does help out (it also works with normal seeds with or without a hard shell).
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SpaceMonkey
Mind Pilot
Registered: 02/09/09
Posts: 3,471
Loc: Hawaiian Islands
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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Hmmmmm, interesting?!?!
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Don't Mistake My Kindness For Weakness
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 DrGreenThumb
Registered: 08/09/08
Posts: 487
Loc: Phish Tour
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The year before last year I tried a grow with sum 4 year old seeds. NONE of them germinated. Weed seeds don't last very long. That's why there's always new seeds in the stores every year for gardens. Some seeds might last for 10 years. But NOT weed seeds. That's fo' sho'.
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“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” -Dr. Seuss
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ronjohn7779
Registered: 02/01/09
Posts: 36
Last seen: 14 years, 11 months
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Quote:
SpaceMonkey said:
Hmmmmm, interesting?!?!
It's in the indoor outdoor growers bible and everything I've read about it seems to indicate that these microcuts usually speeds up germination on certain types of seeds. It's worth a shot though.
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SpaceMonkey
Mind Pilot
Registered: 02/09/09
Posts: 3,471
Loc: Hawaiian Islands
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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I will try almost anything once. Thanks for the reference too.
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Don't Mistake My Kindness For Weakness
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SpaceMonkey
Mind Pilot
Registered: 02/09/09
Posts: 3,471
Loc: Hawaiian Islands
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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Ok, These seeds i planted ovbiously were not viable anyore. I had given the potted seed almost 2 and a half weeks to start popping out the ground. Dug around in the soil and found all my seeds still solid as a rock, no cracking open. The paper towel seeds were sitting for a week and a half and they were still hard and not cracking open.
So i started a new batch from some new seed, and so far i have a 90% germination!! And its all been only 3 days! Should be a growlog coming from the islands soon!
varieties should include island strains of Blueberry, blueberry/widow cross and northern lights.
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Don't Mistake My Kindness For Weakness
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ronjohn7779
Registered: 02/01/09
Posts: 36
Last seen: 14 years, 11 months
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At least you tried. It never hurts to NOT try. You sometimes can get some unexpectedly positive results. Hope you have the best of luck with your future grow!
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SpaceMonkey
Mind Pilot
Registered: 02/09/09
Posts: 3,471
Loc: Hawaiian Islands
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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Thanks for your input and good vibes!
BTW, Trying the sand paper trick on the remaining old seeds. So far nothing happening with them.
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Don't Mistake My Kindness For Weakness
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captain.koons
Failed Botanist
Registered: 06/25/08
Posts: 6,170
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Quote:
ronjohn7779 said:
In 1-2 years (depending on a lot of factors) your seeds will see a diminished germination rate. If you refrigerate them in a environment that is 37-48 degrees with 5% or less RH seeds can last 1-5 years (once again depending on a lot of factors). Generally though it's not that uncommon for seed to take a little while to germinate if they are a year old/to not germ at all. Usually though one or two grow just fine. So maybe you got a bad batch or they were old to begin with.
37-48 degrees? Why is that? 48 is rather high. A standard refrigerator should be kept as cold as possible without freezing (1-4c or 35-38F) also it's not very practical to have a fridge tailored to keeping seeds.
You can wrap the seeds up keeping their "environments" relative humidity down and either refrigerate them for many years (I've heard of HUGE batches of seeds being stored for 5 years and coming out at 90% germination) or you can freeze them nearly indefinitely. Shantibaba at Mr.Nice seeds just started selling out some original batches of seeds that were over a decade old and there seems to be a 80% germination rate.
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TROLLS NEED LOVE TOO!
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ronjohn7779
Registered: 02/01/09
Posts: 36
Last seen: 14 years, 11 months
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Quote:
captain.koons said:
Quote:
ronjohn7779 said:
In 1-2 years (depending on a lot of factors) your seeds will see a diminished germination rate. If you refrigerate them in a environment that is 37-48 degrees with 5% or less RH seeds can last 1-5 years (once again depending on a lot of factors). Generally though it's not that uncommon for seed to take a little while to germinate if they are a year old/to not germ at all. Usually though one or two grow just fine. So maybe you got a bad batch or they were old to begin with.
37-48 degrees? Why is that? 48 is rather high. A standard refrigerator should be kept as cold as possible without freezing (1-4c or 35-38F) also it's not very practical to have a fridge tailored to keeping seeds.
You can wrap the seeds up keeping their "environments" relative humidity down and either refrigerate them for many years (I've heard of HUGE batches of seeds being stored for 5 years and coming out at 90% germination) or you can freeze them nearly indefinitely. Shantibaba at Mr.Nice seeds just started selling out some original batches of seeds that were over a decade old and there seems to be a 80% germination rate.
Temp range is debatable some like it colder than others. 48 being crisp veggie temp range and the warmest you should go and some like it at that temp (that is why I put a range of temps). My "friend" has his seeds at 38 degrees and I personally think that's the money temp. Also 90% of seed breeders say to NEVER freeze seeds I'm inclined to believe them considering freezing items causes cells to crystalize and rupture. If you want to freeze yours go head I just personally wouldn't is all. I imagine you can equate this to the same logic as to why foodies/coffee freaks never freeze their beans...it generally just degrades quality and condensation easily forms in a freezer more so than in a fridge. The opening and closing of a freezer door is more than enough to cause liquid in the freezer to crystalize (either in the air or around the frozen items thats part of why food freezer burn happens). This is mostly due to the huge cap in temp from the exterior of the freezer to the interior.
I also never said he should have a special fridge tailored to keeping seeds. A simple normal fridge (at 38(or colder if you like)-48 degrees)+air tight container+desiccant gel=perfect environment for a seed (between 38-48 degrees with a 5% RH).
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