Hello all,
I ordered these seeds a couple of months ago, and started the germination process 5 weeks ago. They’ve done nothing.
I’ve been successful many times germinating other seeds.
I noticed that all of the seeds are much darker and seem a little harder than seeds I’ve used in the past.
So this is nearly 6 weeks of trying to germinate.
What could be the issue?
did you soak them in water for 24 hours?
Yes, I did.
Did you soak them for longer than 24hrs?
…that paper towel looks awfully wet.
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I soaked them in water for just 24 hours, then put them in a damp paper towel, folded the towel over, then put it on a plate, then another plate over that.
After about a week with having no sprouts break through I took the very same steps with some seeds that were given to me. Strain unknown. Here is the result so far…
Uploading…
How many seeds didn’t germinate? Could just be genetics, or the seed could have got damaged?
None of them germinated so far.
They don’t look damaged, only very dark and hard.
Ok mate seeds that dont want to open often need a ruffen up. Put em in a match box with some sand paper and shake it around.
You want to ruffen the surface.
Then place in damp not soaking tissue.
But even after this yours may be duds. But this way is a proven winner for hard shell seeds.
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You can also try Gibberellic Acid; around 100-200ppms
Generally, the best seeds are tiger stripped.
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Where did you get them?
If they’re dark and hard they may have drowned
I understand this site advocates soaking for 24 hours but I personally do not recommend it, jmo
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all my life,…well, way back when I grew, lol…I used the wet paper towel method… ordered from ILGM and did the 24 hour soak…it worked great but I did it for one single reason…because they said I had to in order to maintain my guarantee/warranty, lol…so far I am 3/3 with seven still in the pill bottle waiting for next time… I would be tickled shitless to go 10/10 with these seeds.
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I drop my ILGM seed in a cup of PH"d room temp water, they should float, if/ when they split I plant em, if they sink I throw em out. Yup at ten bucks a pop. I guess you can send em back or something , I never did , only lost a few.
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I soak for 18-24hours, in tap water. After about the 12 hour mark, I check and push them down into the water. You want them to sink, this insures the water penitration into the seed.
18-24 hours later I dump the water, and place the seed in a damp paper towel, in a very dark room or closet. The paper towel is folded twice, and seed placed within one of the pockets. (damp not wet, you want the towel to breath)
Normally checking twice a day, to insure the paper towel stays moist, the tail shold crack the seed and start poking out soon after, if it already hasnt.
I normally wait till the tail or tap root is about an 1-2in, but this is optional. Then you can transplant to the media you’re using.
Good luck and happy growing 
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Often if the seeds stay too wet, they don’t get enough oxygen and will drown and rot inside. And as others have said, this often makes them look really dark.
I’ve never had to do it to any of the seeds I’ve recieved from ILGM, but scarification is a good idea for really old seeds, and does help all seeds germinate faster. Cannabis doesn’t seem to need stratification, and they can germinate in the presence of light, or in complete darkness, but the following video descibes soaking and scarification very well:
I’ve never had a problem with any of the small dark seeds ordered from ILGM, and I’ve had very similar luck to what @Oak has claimed. I doubt that is the problem, but we do stand behind our guarentee, just contact them through e-mail, at the e-mail address included with your order, or to support.
If you just soak in a glass of freshly aerated water, soaking for only 24 hours won’t deplete enough dissolved oxygen from the glass to drown the seeds. You can soak, as stated in the video, for longer than 24 hours, but oxygented water is important, so changing the water often, at the very least every 24 hours, but I like to change it every 12 hours, and this will ensure the water contains enough dissolved oxygen. The oxygen is very important and @Paranorman has good reason to caution people about this form of germination, as it can be easy to drown your seeds if your water doesn’t have enough dissolved O2.
Same with the paper towel method, if the paper towel is actually too wet, it isn’t really any different than leaving the seed fully submerged in water that isn’t fresh and doesn’t have enough dissolved O2. You want it damp, not soaked, as @Aquaponic_Dumme mentioned.
happy germinating,
MacG
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Wow, when I went to buy my ILGM seeds there was a little article on how to germinate seeds, I did push them down a few times but opted not to put them in wet towels and didn’t wait for a tap root longer than 1/4 in. I was under the impression they would get damaged or root rot would occur , All but maybe two out of 15 seeds germed correctly, two sank , they never made it. All the rest sprouted well, I lost 8 plants during my Guerilla grow to Newbie factors and just harvested 6. !!!
One is in the BOM !!
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As seedlings, I often manipulate plants. Keep in mind, I grow mostly aquaponicly/hydroponicly, in hydroton or aeroponics. Allowing the tap root to grow a little longer may or may not help your style grow, and is totally optional.
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I do a simple passive wick system with paper towels and two saucers in a propagation tray
The wick regulates it so it never gets too wet and it never dries out
I’m going to be starting some in a few weeks and plan to do a picture intensive thread
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As I also mostly do hydroponics, and so I often germinate in rockwool or a peat plug suspended in a net pot in my cloner “bubbleponics” bucket. The cloning bucket is always well aerated, for the clones. The air bubbles splash very oxygenated water onto the plug or rockwool, and so this method works pretty much 100% for me, or at least I haven’t had a ILGM seed not germinate since I adopted this method.
~MacG
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I’m in college and cant even Spell those words “Aquahydroaero” let alone grow in it , LOL 
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