Ways To Correctly Keep Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds, with their tough outer shell, seem pretty hardy. And while nature has clearly designed them to hold up a wide variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren't immune. Quick changes in temperature and elevated humidity, for example, can rapidly ruin a batch of seeds. Luckily, looking after your seeds is straightforward. Keep reading to find out how.

Your Seeds Are Still Alive

Most people forget this, but it's worth remembering: your cannabis seeds are alive organisms. Before they sprout, however, they are in a state of rest, just like some animals when they hibernate. And like all life forms, seeds can expire. When preserving your seeds, you'll want to provide them the ideal conditions to guarantee they remain viable until you're ready to germinate and plant them.

Optimal Conditions for Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds have four primary enemies:

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

Ideally, you want to keep your seeds in a cool, dark, and moisture-free place. Whenever possible, keep your seeds in their original packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we've carefully designed our packaging to protect our seeds until you're ready to grow them.

If your seeds get subjected to light or quick changes in temperature, these conditions will cause them to use up their food reserves before they ever reach soil, meaning they won't have the food they need to sprout. High humidity, on the contrary, can trigger fungi to form on your seeds.

Effects of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds

Humidity is definitely one of the largest threats to your seeds. Here is how different levels of humidity (% relative humidity) impact your cannabis seeds:

Need advice on controlling humidity for your plants? The Grow Guide offers key tips for maintaining healthy growing environments.

Where and How to Store Your Cannabis Seeds

For https://nativesusa.com/ (https://nativesusa.com/) short-term storage, dark cupboard or drawer with consistent temperatures is usually fine. Try to keep your seeds away from areas of your house that are prone to the typical temperature changes of your area environment.

If, for example, you live in a region with very high daytime temperatures and cold nights, try to shield your seeds from these changes and don't store them outside in a shed or garage.

For prolonged storage, it's ideal to keep your seeds with moisture absorbers, such as silica gel, in sealed container inside the refrigerator. Remember that accessing the door of your refrigerator can actually produce some pretty major temperature shifts. If you have have a second fridge that gets opened less often than the one in your kitchen, pick that one to store your seeds.

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

Ziplock bags, for example, are great because you can remove all the air from them to create an almost vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once sealed, put your bag inside opaque plastic bag or dark container to protect your seeds from your icebox light.

Moisture-free fridges are the ideal to store seeds. The problem is when there is moisture in the fridge, since humidity is the biggest enemy for seeds (more harmful 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 stored in the freezer. The more extreme the temperature, the less quickly they decline. However, it's generally not necessary to freeze your seeds. Maintain the conditions we outlined above, and you should be able to keep your seeds for up to half a decade and still get high germination rate.

Determining Which Seeds to Plant and Which to Store

When you're ready to grow your seeds, check them and germinate any seeds with damage to the outer shell first. The shell of your seeds is built to protect the volatile genetics inside. Seeds with breaks in the outer shell are far more vulnerable and won't be stored.

At Royal Queen Seeds, we pride ourselves in our work and want to make sure every grower only has the best genetics in their garden. That means we check all of our seeds before packaging. If you notice any damage to your RQS seeds, reach out with our help team immediately.

Techniques for Germinating Older Cannabis Seeds

We've all located random seed somewhere at the bottom of old drawer or cupboard. Here are several tips on how to grow weed seeds:

Pre-treatment with fortified carbonated water

Before sprouting your old seeds, try submerging them in carbonated water enhanced with fulvic acid, enhancers, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For optimal results, use lukewarm water and soak your seeds for twelve hours in a dark place.

Scratch your seeds

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

Take off your seed's ridge

The ridge is the somewhat elevated side of your seed. Like 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 sprout.

Slice open your seed

In desperate attempt to sprout 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 damaging the inside of your seed. If you harm the embryo, the seed will never germinate.

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