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How To Properly Preserve Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds, with their tough outer shell, appear pretty hardy. And while nature has clearly designed them to last through many variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren't immune. Rapid changes in temperature and high humidity, for example, can easily ruin collections of seeds. Luckily, maintaining your seeds is straightforward. Keep reading to discover how.

Your Seeds Are Living

Most people forget this, but it's real: your cannabis seeds are alive organisms. Before they grow, however, they are in dormant rest, much like some animals when they rest. And like all living things, seeds can expire. When preserving your seeds, you'll want to offer them the ideal conditions to ensure they last until you're ready to plant and plant them.

Perfect Conditions for Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds have four primary enemies:

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

Optimally, you want to preserve your seeds in a cool, dark, and arid place. When possible, keep your seeds in their initial packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we've specifically designed our packaging to safeguard our seeds until you're ready to plant them.

If your seeds get subjected to light or quick changes in temperature, these conditions will make them to consume their nutrient stores before they ever see soil, meaning they won't have the food they need to germinate. Elevated humidity, on the other hand, can cause fungi to grow on your seeds.

Effects of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds

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

Seeking advice on controlling humidity for your plants? The Grow Guide provides key tips for keeping healthy cultivation environments.

Storage Methods to Store Your Cannabis Seeds

For temporary storage, dim cupboard or drawer with stable temperatures is generally fine. Try to keep your seeds out of areas of your house that are susceptible to the typical temperature changes of your regional environment.

If, for example, you are in an area with very high daytime temperatures and low 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 recommended to keep your seeds with moisture absorbers, such as silica gel, in sealed container inside the refrigerator. Remember that accessing the door of your fridge can actually create some pretty dramatic temperature shifts. If you happen to have an additional fridge that gets accessed less often than the one in your kitchen, use that one to store your seeds.

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

Ziplock bags, for example, are excellent because you can extract all the air from them to create practically vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once vacuum-sealed, put your bag inside opaque plastic bag or black container to guard 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 worst enemy for seeds (worse than temperature, light, oxygen...). For this reason, it is better 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 lower the temperature, the less quickly they decline. However, it's usually not required to freeze your seeds. Maintain the conditions we described above, and you should be able to preserve your seeds for up to 5 years and still get a high germination rate.

Knowing Which Seeds to Grow and Which to Store

When you're ready to germinate your seeds, examine them and germinate any seeds with harm to the outer shell first. The exterior of your seeds is built to protect the volatile genetics inside. Seeds with cracks in the outer shell are much more vulnerable and can't be stored.

At Royal Queen Seeds, we take pride in our work and want to ensure every grower only has the top genetics in their garden. That means we examine all of our seeds before packaging. If you find any damage to your RQS seeds, get in touch with our support team immediately.

Methods for Germinating Aged Cannabis Seeds

We've all found an odd seed somewhere at the depths of forgotten drawer or cupboard. Here are some tips on how to germinate weed seeds:

Soaking with enriched carbonated water

Before sprouting your old seeds, try soaking them in carbonated water enhanced with fulvic acid, germination booster, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For top results, use room temperature water and https://nativesusa.com/ (nativesusa.com) soak your seeds for half a day in a dark place.

Score your seeds

Mature seeds often have extremely tough outer shell. Lightly scratching this shell with some sandpaper can help water and warmth enter your seed at the time of germination. Try lightly scarring your old cannabis seeds just before soaking to help them sprout.

Eliminate the seed's ridge

The ridge is the somewhat elevated side of your seed. Like sections of the shell, this ridge can become extremely tough over time. Taking off it gently with sharp Stanley blade can help your seed sprout.

Cut open your seed

In a last attempt to germinate your seeds, creating small cut in the seed's shell may help. However, this is no magic solution, and you'll need to be cautious to avoid harming the inside of your seed. If you harm the embryo, the seed will never grow.

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