I realized I have a bunch of seeds that I don’t care about growing and old starter soil that needs to be used. I figure rather than throwing it all away I might as well do some experiments with them while I’m getting ready for my next grow.
I’ve looked around and picked a few germination methods to compare side by side. I currently have my grow room set at 77-80 degrees. I let my RO water, soil, and seeds all acclimate for the last 12 hours. I have 12 clem-n-cheese seeds that were given to me by my local grow shop a few months ago. They have been stored in my fridge door since. I also have 30 or 40 mystery seeds I got from a customer. Those are a few years old and were not stored well. I have germinated a few in the past but they weren’t the best so we will see what happens. I’m going to try 4 slightly different methods to germinate and grow them as big as I can in small starter bags to compare speed of growth and health of the plants. I will try each method with a plain water soak and soaking in a solution of 3 parts water and 1 part 3%H2O2.
Soak seeds overnight. Wrap in damp paper towel. Seal away for 24 hours in the dark. Check every 6-12 hours until 1/4" reticle develops. plant in starter soil.
Same as 1 but with peroxide soak.
Straight to moistened soil. Place under 24 hour light
Same as 3 but with a quick bath in 3% H2O2 before going in the soil.
Similar to 1 but I will slightly flood the paper towels instead of wringing them out before storing away.
Same as 5 but with peroxide soak.
Soak over night. Plant in moistened soil. Place under 24 hour light.
Same as 7 but with peroxide soak
Group 3 and 4 have been planted and the rest are all soaking until tomorrow morning. I’ll post updates as things happen.
It’s been 12 hours form the seeds touching water. I planted group 7 and 8. The rest of the seeds have been placed in their containers and wrapped in a towel to keep the light out and keep temp stable. I did notice a few of the seeds had split already. No measurable difference between the H2O2 and plain water groups yet.
We are now at 36 hours. One Clem from group 1 had a good tail and went to dirt. The other is cracked but no reticle yet. Both Clems from group 2 have a reticle but not quite long enough yet. Groups 5, 6, and all the mystery seeds each have a few cracked seeds, but no reticles yet.
48 hours in. Both clem from group 2 are now in the dirt. I’m starting to see some small reticles here and there elsewhere but groups 1 and 2 seem to be leading so far. I’m also starting to see the H2O2 groups pull ahead of their plain water counterparts. So far nothing on the straight to dirt front, although my past experience says that day 3 and 4 are usually when I start seeing the straight to dirt seeds pop and that’s when I have good seeds.
Big morning this morning! I woke up a little late this morning so it was about 62 hours when I checked them this morning. The first of the straight to soil seeds has popped(Group 3 seed 4. I also panted a Clem from group 5 and a mystery seed each from group 1 and 2. I also noticed that the seeds in group 5 that are growing a reticle are in an air bubble between the paper towels.
sorry, its the best pic I could get. A- group 5 seeds with air bubbles and reticles. B- no air bubble no reticle. C- rogue seed that keeps floating out of the paper towel. It seems to be dead
About 85 hours in. I had 2 more clems pop last night. One form group 7 and one from group 8. I also had another mystery seed pop up(group 3 seed 7). Everyone except the clem from group 5 that I planted yesterday have shed their helmet heads and most have their first fingered leaves. I believe it is becoming clear just how poorly stored those mystery seeds were. They were stored with the bud in a paper bag in his garage for a long time. The ones that did try to germinate are moving much slower than the clems I got from the grow store. I’m going to give them a few more days, but they certainly don’t make for a good reliable test.
So we are around 120 hours right now and not a lot has changed. What seedlings I do have are pretty leggy. It took me a couple days to snap to the fact that the new seedling dome eats a lot of light. Hopefully I’ve got that solved now. I’m glad I found this out now with seeds I don’t care about. Most of the clem n cheese have popped up now I think i have 5 of the thirty something mystery seeds.
1 week since the seeds touched water. Yesterday morning I dumped the excess water out of containers 5 and 6. Both clem seeds in group 6 grew great tails in 24 hours. The remaining clem from group 5 also grew a small reticle. I plopped them all in the dirt and threw out the rest of the mystery seeds. The ones that had been flooded were smelling rancid and the dryer ones were starting to mold. I also thinned the straight to dirt groups. I dug out the seeds and most of them didn’t germinate. There were a few that were about to break ground so I left those.
Day 8. I don’t think any of the seeds I saved on day 7 are going to do much. No surprise there.
I decided, in the true spirit of last minute experimentation, I’m going to transplant some of the clems into bigger bags in hopes of getting some seeds for future experiments. I might also do some experiments along the way since I’m just playing around while my dirt cooks for a grow I actually care about.
It’s now day 12. I believe it’s time to bring this experiment to a close. I’m not going to count any of the mystery seeds since the germination results were so poor. of the 36 mystery seeds only two grew anything worth keeping. Group 2 did the best with 2 of 2 happy clems and one of the mystery keepers. Group 1 was next with 1 of 2 and the other mystery keeper. Group 6 seems to be catching up to group 2 since I dumped the extra water out but they are still pretty small.Groups 7 and 8 tied with 1 of 2 good seedlings each. I think that had a lot to do with the old soil I started in. Group 5 is last with 1 of 2 that is just OK. I think I forgot to mention earlier that groups 3 and 4 were all mystery seeds and produced nothing meaningful.Final count, out of 12 seeds 2 didn’t germinate at all, 2 came out upside down not sure why. That is a new one for me. 8 seeds turned into decent seedlings. They were a little leggy from dome issues and pretty yellow from old soil (I think). I transplanted them yesterday into a once used mix of FFOF and Roots Organic Original. This morning they were much happier and hopefully back on track. I’ll probably move the action to a grow journal to track the survivors. I don’t think there were any big surprises. Looks like the peroxide did make a small difference in most groups but the major factor here appears to moisture content. Damp reticles are happy reticles. Wet reticles are drowned reticles. Thanks for tagging along with me. Happy growing everyone.
I’m sad to hear this is coming to a close. I wanted to see if any were going to be males or females, see how the life cycle is on the seeds that we find in buds.
I was thinking about later on this summer try some of the seeds that’s been called out from many bud that I have smoked over the years and years. I don’t know if they’re male female Auto normal special unique LOL.
If a seed comes from autoflowers does that make in an autoflower seed? Same with normal marijuana. Hopefully monto Santos never gets involved in the weed game.
Thank you for your experiment I love reading things like this thank you
I am going to continue the experiment. I’m going to start a grow journal to track their progress. I want more seeds to play with. I have a friend that is willing to grow a male for me so I don’t seed out the main op. There is also the added benefit that the clem n cheese is supposed to be bred on my side of the mountain so I’m thinking outdoor plants to play with.
