Methods To Properly Preserve Cannabis Seeds
Cannabis seeds, with their tough outer shell, appear pretty hardy. And while nature has clearly designed them to hold up a wide variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren’t immune. Sudden changes in temperature and high humidity, for example, can quickly ruin a batch of seeds. Luckily, maintaining your seeds is simple. Keep reading to learn how.
Your Seeds Are Living
Many people forget this, but it’s true: your cannabis seeds are living organisms. Before they sprout, however, they are in a state of rest, just like some animals when they sleep. And like all life forms, seeds can die. When preserving your seeds, you’ll want to provide them the optimal conditions to guarantee they remain viable until you’re ready to sprout and plant them.
Optimal Conditions for Cannabis Seeds
Cannabis seeds have four key enemies:
- Humidity
- Temperature
- Light
- Oxygen
Preferably, you want to store your seeds in cool, dark, and arid place. If possible, keep your seeds in their factory packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we’ve carefully designed our packaging to shield 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 deplete their food reserves before they ever reach soil, meaning they won’t have the food they need to germinate. High humidity, on the flip side, can cause fungi to develop on your seeds.
Effects of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds
Humidity is easily one of the biggest threats to your seeds. Here is how various levels of humidity (% relative humidity) affect your cannabis seeds:
| Levels of Relative Humidity | Influence of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds |
|---|---|
| 80 – 100% | Seeds germinate. |
| 40 – 60% | Seeds increase respiration and preservation fungi become major problem. |
| 20 – 30% | Temporary storage. |
| 18 – 20% | Mid-term storage. |
| 12 – 14% | Extended storage. |
| 8 – 9% | Lower longevity than seeds kept at moderately higher humidity. |
Seeking advice on controlling humidity for your plants? The Grow Guide gives key tips for preserving healthy cultivation environments.
How and Where to Store Your Cannabis Seeds
For temporary storage, dark cupboard or drawer with stable temperatures is generally fine. Try to keep your seeds away from areas of your house that are affected by the typical temperature changes of your local environment.
If, for example, you are in a region with very warm daytime temperatures and cool nights, try to safeguard your seeds from these changes and don’t place them outside in a shed or garage.
For long-term storage, it’s ideal to keep your seeds with moisture absorbers, such as silica gel, in an airtight container inside the icebox. Remember that opening the door of your icebox can actually cause some pretty dramatic temperature shifts. If you have have a second 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 factory packaging. If you do unseal a pack of seeds and have remaining seeds, transfer the remaining seeds directly into an airtight container.
Ziplock bags, for example, are perfect because you can remove all the air from them to make an almost vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once packaged, put your bag inside a dark plastic bag or dark container to guard your seeds from your refrigerator light.
Low-humidity fridges are the best to store seeds. The problem is when there is humidity in the fridge, since humidity is the biggest enemy for seeds (more dangerous than temperature, light, oxygen…). For this reason, it is preferable to store the seeds in No Frost fridges.
Can You Store 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 typically not necessary to freeze your seeds. Meet the conditions we outlined above, and you should be able to maintain your seeds for up to half a decade and https://nativesusa.com/, https://nativesusa.com/, still get high germination rate.
Knowing Which Seeds to Germinate and Which to Store
When you’re ready to grow your seeds, inspect them and germinate any seeds with harm to the outer shell first. The shell of your seeds is made to protect the delicate genetics inside. Seeds with breaks in the outer shell are far more vulnerable and shouldn’t be stored.
At Royal Queen Seeds, we take pride in our work and want to ensure every grower only has the best genetics in their garden. That means we examine all of our seeds before shipping. If you see any damage to your RQS seeds, reach out with our support team immediately.
Techniques for Germinating Aged Cannabis Seeds
We’ve all located stray seed somewhere at the bottom of old drawer or cupboard. Here are several tips on how to grow weed seeds:
Soaking with fortified carbonated water
Before growing your old seeds, try soaking them in carbonated water enhanced with fulvic acid, germination booster, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For optimal results, use room temperature water and soak your seeds for twelve hours in dark place.
Scratch your seeds
Aged seeds often have an extra tough outer shell. Carefully scratching this shell with some sandpaper can help moisture and warmth enter your seed at the time of germination. Try lightly scarring your old cannabis seeds just before immersing to help them grow.
Take off the seed’s ridge
The ridge is the marginally elevated side of your seed. Like other parts of the shell, this ridge can become extra tough over time. Taking off it gently with a sharp Stanley blade can help your seed germinate.
Cut open your seed
In final attempt to germinate your seeds, creating small cut in the shell may help. However, this is no guaranteed fix, and you’ll need to be gentle 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 sprout no matter how long you try. When possible, avoid getting more seeds than you will plant so as to avoid having any problems at the time of germination.