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Restarting dud seeds

OldManGrower

OldManGrower

New member
Somewhere on this forum or on the GWE site, I read of a last ditch technique for sprouting dud seeds. Does anyone remember this? Or, does anyone have any suggestions regarding this?
 
How are they duds? Do they never sprout or do they sprout as runts that never grow? Why are they duds? Age? Exposed to heat & light? What are these seeds? Are they southeast Asian? Sorry for all the ?s but we may have an answer knowing all that
 
I’ve never seen a post on that and i would also be interested if you find it. I haven’t had many not pop but when they don’t I normally just sink a new seed.
 
Sorry if I was unclear. By Dud Seeds I mean those that never sprout. By "restart", I remember something like placing them in a solution of warm water and hydrogen peroxide for a period then retrying the paper towel method. My seeds are all purchased about a year ago at the same time from a reputable firm. The strains are varied. I know I read this here or on GWE.
 
I don’t know of that article but a water + peroxide soak is common. Some landrace seeds are too hard and won’t open, they need to be scraped gently with a nail file or sandpaper. Gently is the key word there.
 
I used to have a matchbox with sandpaper taped to the inside walls. I’d place seeds in there and give it a gentle shake. Then drop in water for a soak, they better float or there’s a problem. In a day the seeds fall to the bottom, they stopped floating. The inside of the seed detects water. Remove and put in a paper towel. Sometimes I skip the towel and place that seed into dirt.
 
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Last season I had a few seeds of unknown origin that after a couple weeks hadn't popped. I absent mindedly tossed them in the nearest pot in my vegetable grow (Onion pot) and low and behold many weeks later I was harvesting the onions and there were 2 weed plants in among them. They had been neglected and didn't seem to appreciate the close proximity to onion bulbs. I left them in the pot and added some nutrients and they took off like gang busters. One decided to identify as a male but the other, while on the small side produced some remarkable bud. After harvest it became a fan favorite among my friends and everyone began to refer to it as the Front Porch Bud. So in my estimation, yes, duds can hatch and become viable plants. That being said, there is a long held belief or practice among old school growers that if you put a piece of sandpaper in a small container along with the stubborn seeds and give it a brief shake that the slight abrasions on the seed husk will allow more water penetration allowing your seed to hatch. Good luck!
 
This is why I asked where did they come from, Asia?

from The Real Seed Company: “Wild-type Cannabis seeds germinate better after a period of storage at cold temperatures. This process is known as cold stratification and enables them to overcome germination inhibitors.

Even then, wild-type seeds are somewhat dormant and germinate irregularly. These are adaptive features that enable the plants to overcome the environmental fluctuations typical of wild habitats.”
 
There are two thing you can do, one is sterilize the seed surface to prevent fungi from growing. This can be done with a bit of peroxide or alcohol. Just a 5 second rub in your hands palm then dry with paper towel. The other thing is to use gibberilic acid GA3 I think. Google it. It’s a stretch hormone naturally contained in seeds but as it breaks up over time old seeds may need some diluted in the germinating water
 
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