Germinating old seed

[XBRPete]

Hi Guys and Gals!

Thought I would pose a question for you and see what the gurus on this great site come up with in respect to what I have tried.

I was gifted some beans from a South American breeder friend that I work with for a line that he discontinued from his catalog.

The genetic had some wonderful med properties but did not catch on, probably due to not being in the Dam and high Sativa land race input resulting in a longer run in flower to finish... I love my land race so 18 to 20 week flower runs is fine with me.

The beans were harvested in 2006 and stored correctly.

My first attempt at 20 resulted in 2 crackers out of 20 but no viable plant developed.

I have another 20 beans at present am trying a method Subcool gave me of freezing the beans for 48 hours and then putting into the Botanicare plugs in the germing domes.

Any other suggestions?

Peace!
Pete

[J O E]

most simple method to find out for sure would be to drop them in some water and see if the root pops out... even with old seeds this should work... should

[Weedguru Higher]

Are you sure you have ripe seeds? What color are they?

[skunkskool]

try using some mycorrhizae as a coating over the seed. once the root starts to pop out the mycorrhizae will will act to capture nutrients for the seedling as well as releasing vital growth hormones.

To give these beans the best chance I'd advise placing them into a nutrient rich medium of around 2.6ec, also containing some humic or fulvic acid, or both. Kelp is excellent too as this will release cytokinin hormones, a growth hormone. Start them in coco too for better o2.

In regards to the freezing, this is how you should have stored them from the beginning. seeds will stay fresh for 10 years and longer if you freeze them.

[Weedguru Higher]

Hey skunkskool, welcome to the forums, (you must be from the skunkskool forums eh?) it sounds like you really know your stuff anyways

What is mycorrhizae? I've never heard of it

[skunkskool]

Hey skunkskool, welcome to the forums, (you must be from the skunkskool forums eh?) it sounds like you really know your stuff anyways

What is mycorrhizae? I've never heard of it

yeah, somebody came to skunkskool and has this forum in their sig... figured i'd check this place out as I'd never heard of it before.

mychorrhizae is a root fungus. It does many wonderful things, including helping with seed germination, drought tolerance, pathogen prevention, releases growth hormones for the plant and will keep nutrients in available forms, nitrogen in particular. the trade off comes in the carbohydrates the plant roots naturally exude, the mychorrhizae feed from that as well as a small amount of nitrogen.

[Weedguru Higher]

^ Thanks, I just learned something new

[Bubbles]

^ Thanks, I just learned something new

lol its like hes an encyclopedia.

[skunkskool]

growing weed is my favourite subject... and I always love sharing what I've learned.

[(weedguru)scarf]

Nice to have you here man...

i found a seed in an old cannister of mine... no idea if its autoflowering or just regular...

best way to germinate it?
wet paper towl between two plates ontop of the fridge?

[Weedguru Higher]

I prefer the cup of water method for germinating as you don't have to worry about the paper drying out

Check out this guide http://www.weedguru.com/forum/viewtopic ... 88&t=15187

[(weedguru)scarf]

cheers man... turns out the seed was way too old and dry to use..
but im hopefully getting some more soonish

[Weedguru_RyaNayR]

i use a paper towel... i have sprouted seeds that were like a year and a half old, that i found in my wallet. Not ideal conditions by any means, though they were not exposed to much light. i'm surprised none of them broke from me sitting on them.