Open seed coats on some seeds why?

[Retardo Motabon]

I recently had a seedmom that had a noticeable number of seeds that had open seed coats before they come of the plant. They germinate if planted right away but I imagine the seed would dry out and die pretty quick if stored.
Does anyone know if there are environmental factors that may cause this problem with seed formation?
RM

 

[green_thumb...]

One theory someone had was it was too moist or humid around the reefs while still on the plant.

I had 3 bog sourlifesaver beams that were pre popped and grew just fine.

 

[DocLeaf]

High humidity will cause seeds to germinate on the plant. Wally Duck documents this on one thread

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Hmm, would have thought DocL would know this one. It's the genes. I had a strain years ago in NYC that I nicknamed 'bald indica' for that exact reason. The seeds were always popping out of the casings and showing lil bald heads before the plant was ripe. Cloned it and grew it again and again, always the same result. So, it could be possible that environmental parameters could influence the exposure of the seeds in the bracts, but I'd have to weigh in heavily on the genes, at least as a place to start.

 

[Retardo Motabon]

Ya know when I hit the Genius mom with C99 pollen a good amount of the seeds had slightly open coats, some with thin coats.
The backcrossed seeds I have had issues with open coats is from Genius x F13. No issues with other seeds fathered by the F13 male I used. I'm going to look back at seeds I've made with Genius and see if I find open coats on any of them out of curiosity.
When my humidity has gotten too high I have had seeds start to sprout on the plant but this is a bit different.
thanks for the input,
RM

 

[foomar]

Had a Geisha do this last year , looked like a packet of pistachios , popped fine straight away but binned the remainder as i guessed they would not age well.

Nothing seen with this mother apart from the one time , put it down to near wilting drought for a couple of days at P +10 , assumed the inrush of water then caused semi hardened immature seed shells to split.

Had the same with peapods and other veg , deadly with tomatoes and similar.

 

[Iron_Lion]

I had an FMS grapefruit in my pack I thought would never germ because the seed husk was completely split open but to my surprise it germed and grew just like normal.

I also made a bunch of seeds and about 20 out of the bunch looked like like the tails were poking out when I harvested them and same deal they germed just fine.

 

[Retardo Motabon]

Here is a pic of some seeds from the Genius/F13 x F13 cross that have had the issues I spoke of. There are a few visible in this pic.

RM

 

[Ganoderma]

I think that I've read something somewhere about this. I think the author of the writing was concluding that it was an enviromental influence.

 

[BlueGrassToker]

I had recently received some of the last stock of Luiz Fritzmans offerings. One strain had a single seed with an open shell...and it was the only one that germinated.

 

[SOTF420]

It's definitely genetic & based on seed health & maturity - of my recent Swt #4 seed run out of 8 females only 3 of them produced some seeds with the shell slightly split open already and the humidity was not high, nor were they dried in high humidity. The buds were actually cut out of the cola's for drying and to prevent high humidity within the buds while drying them. 1 of the plants produced very noticeable open seeds that was the one I call "Sat #2" pheno and roughly 75% of it's seeds were this way with some very open already right off the plant (these have been held back from the packs btw), the other 2 mothers that had it was just a few seeds here and there and not nearly as open as the Sat #2 pheno seeds. The majority of the other females grown in the exact same space and identical conditions did not have any open seeds whatsoever so that would lead me to conclude it's not environmental or else all the plants should have been affected.

So it seems to be somewhat genetic and also I think from extremely healthy plants and very ripe seeds, the embryo is basically outgrowing it's shell and causing it to pry open due to the size inside but keep in mind there is still a protective embryonic coating over it (the little semi-clear skin like sheath that sometimes has to be pulled off of germinating seedlings) and most likely germination will be fine with any of them even after being stored that is as long as they are stored properly to begin with in a sealed container and cool place.

Just because the shell tip is slightly open does not mean it's going to "dry out" and wither away because there is already air exchange anyways between the embryo and the air outside the shell regardless of the tip being opened or not that is how seeds can be dried to begin with before long term storage. If anything they are actually more likely to be 100% viable because many times when seeds do not germinate it's not because they are unviable to begin with it's because the taproot does not successfully penetrate the seed shell and thus is unable to grow and the usage of too much Phosphorus in bloom with exotic bud boosters primarily used for seedless plants can encourage seed walls that are too thick and ultimately affect their ability to germinate without some type of human intervention like scuffing, etc.

 

[Retardo Motabon]

Thanks for all of the input everybody.
Of note, this was not the only seeded mom in the environment in question. I had a fully seeded Mango Haze x F13 mom that has had zero thin or open seams on the seeds in the same space that was pollinated a week before the Genius cross.
My temps were 78 during the light hours with a rh of 40-44 and nighttime temps of mid 60's with rh of 45-50.
No boosters were used. Plants were fed lightly at about 1.0-1.3 ec throughout flower. No deficiencies noticeable on either mom.
thanks again for the posts.
RM