Will Cannabis Seeds Be Banned?<

Methods To Properly Keep Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds, with their tough outer shell, look pretty hardy. And while nature has certainly designed them to hold up many variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren't indestructible. Sudden changes in temperature and excessive humidity, for example, can quickly ruin a batch of seeds. Luckily, caring for your seeds is straightforward. Keep reading to find out how.

Your Seeds Are Living

Lots of people forget this, but it's real: your cannabis seeds are alive organisms. Before they grow, however, they are in dormant rest, just like some animals when they hibernate. And like all organisms, seeds can perish. When keeping your seeds, you'll want to provide them the ideal conditions to guarantee they last until you're ready to sprout and plant them.

Perfect Conditions for Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds have four key enemies:

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

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

If your seeds get hit by light or rapid changes in temperature, these conditions will make them to consume their nutrients before they ever touch soil, meaning they won't have the food they need to sprout. Elevated humidity, on the other hand, can encourage fungi to form on your seeds.

Influence of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds

Humidity is easily one of the biggest threats to your seeds. Here is how varying levels of humidity (% relative humidity) impact your cannabis seeds:

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

Where and How to Store Your Cannabis Seeds

For brief storage, a dark cupboard or drawer with stable temperatures is generally fine. Try to keep your seeds away from areas of your house that are prone to the normal temperature changes of your regional environment.

If, for example, you are in a region with very warm 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 long-term storage, it's ideal to keep your seeds with desiccants, https://nativesusa.com/ (nativesusa.com) such as silica gel, in an airtight container inside the fridge. Remember that opening the door of your fridge can actually cause some pretty significant temperature shifts. If you have have an additional fridge that gets accessed less often than the one in your kitchen, use that one to store your seeds.

Again, if possible, keep your seeds in their original packaging. If you do break a pack of seeds and have remaining seeds, transfer the additional seeds directly into a sealed container.

Ziplock bags, for example, are great because you can remove all the air from them to make nearly vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once sealed, put your bag inside a dark plastic bag or dark container to protect your seeds from your refrigerator light.

Moisture-free fridges are the ideal to store seeds. The problem is when there is humidity in the fridge, since humidity is the most dangerous 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 Preserve Seeds in the Freezer?

Yes, cannabis seeds can be preserved in the freezer. The colder the temperature, the slower they decline. However, it's typically not required to freeze your seeds. Maintain the conditions we described above, and you should be able to preserve your seeds for up to half a decade and still get a high germination rate.

Knowing Which Seeds to Germinate and Which to Store

When you're ready to sprout your seeds, inspect them and germinate any seeds with harm to the outer shell first. The shell of your seeds is designed to protect the sensitive genetics inside. Seeds with breaks in the outer shell are a lot more vulnerable and won't be stored.

At Royal Queen Seeds, we take pride in our work and want to make sure every grower only has the finest genetics in their garden. That means we inspect all of our seeds before packing. If you see any damage to your RQS seeds, get in touch with our support team immediately.

Tips for Germinating Aged Cannabis Seeds

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

Pre-soaking with enriched carbonated water

Before germinating your old seeds, try submerging them in carbonated water enhanced with fulvic acid, boosters, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For top results, use ambient water and soak your seeds for half a day in dim place.

Scratch your seeds

Older seeds often have extremely tough outer shell. Gently scratching this shell with fine sandpaper can help water and warmth reach your seed at the time of germination. Try gently scarring your old cannabis seeds just before submerging to help them germinate.

Remove your seed's ridge

The ridge is the somewhat elevated side of your seed. Like other parts of the shell, this ridge can become very tough over time. Eliminating it gently with fine 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 magic solution, and you'll need to be careful to avoid damaging the inside of your seed. If you harm the embryo, the seed will never germinate.

Remember, some old seeds just won't germinate no matter how hard you try. When possible, avoid buying more seeds than you intend to plant so as to avoid having any issues at the time of germination.