[SOTF420]

Made some beautiful Sweet Tooth seeds 7 or 8 years ago and have kept them in a fridge with q-tip ends to absorb any moisture in small baggies. (kept inside another dark container that is inside a thick freezer proof plastic baggie) They were dried for about a week or so at room temp after coming out of buds that dried for a week at room temps of like 75f. If I germinate any of them they are 90-100% still and ready to go no problem. This is because they have been kept cold, dark, and dry.

Also, letting the seeds fully mature on the plant is crucial to the resulting seed health, pollinate very early in flowering when you have ample white hairs and do not wait until the end of the bud cycle because the plant will be deficient in many aspects by the tiime it has grown huge flowers. Don't expect to get very much smoke if you do a full seed run. Seeds grown under very bright full spectrum light (Blue and Red) with good nutrients and great plant health will give you the best long term germ ratios and quality seeds. Co2 supplementation is highly advised for seed making as well since it's a crucial building block for the seed creation & overall development.

Avoid exotic bloom boosters or too many excess supplements when making your seeds and give the plants a very balanced N/P/K ratio without overdoing any one element or you may end up with seeds that have very thick skin with problems germinating out of or shedding it's shell. This problem is from p/k overload during the seed creation & growth. A 1/1/1 ratio of General Hydroponics Flora series works great for making seeds that are very healthy and can germinate easily, a little extra of the bloom is fine but don't use lucas formula for making seeds. They need plenty of nitrogen. You are trying to replicate conditions that might be found in nature so don't fertilize the plants as if you were growing big monster seedless buds, you are growing seeds and the needs are different. Follow these simple basic steps and you cannot go wrong, properly grown and stored cannabis seeds can last you ten to fifteen years easily. People have grown seeds out that are over 20 years old, happens all the time! Love & light to you all!

[VenturaHwy]

Originally Posted by closettoker

I was always told to keep them in the freezer. I know of people that do that and have used seeds that they planted that were almost 20 years old. I know it sounds crazy!. My uncle got seeds from when he was in Vietnam from the 70's. He said he wanted to keep some seed that were pretty close to the real genetics that he had over 40+ years ago,the seeds that he has now are from that same generation.

Does he have any tai stick seeds? That really cool!

Here's the short version for long term seed storage from "The Arc Institute", I have the long version also....
______________________________ ____________
Storing Seed:

Words of advice from Geri Guidetti of The Arc Institute -

To sum up storage of seed, cool, dark and dry are the conditions you want. Temperature fluctuations, especially heat, and humidity are seeds' worst enemies. Generally the drier and cooler the better. You are shooting for a moisture content of about 8%. Seed that dry can be safely frozen for very long periods of time with little of no loss of seed viability. I have spoken with seed storage experts at the National Seed Storage Laboratory and was told that seed stored forty years ago under these conditions was highly viable.

A great way to get seed down to such low levels of moisture is to use a desiccant with your seed packets and seal them together in an airtight jar. A Kraft mayo jar, for example, is perfect for a new wide-mouth canning lid and ring. Hellman's and Best Foods mayo jars or standard canning jars will take a regular size canning lid. Add silica gel to the jar, add the seeds, still in their packets, to the jars, and seal. Small seeds will dry down to 8-10% moisture overnight, while large seeds may take several days. You can then recycle the silica gel and process more seeds with it, sealing the dry seeds into a new, dry jar and putting them in the freezer.

Now, if you want to store your seed for a year or two, shoot for the coolest, driest part of your home. Humidity is generally a greater enemy of viability than temperature, but both are important. Most vegetable seeds have a natural longevity of about 3-5 years under these conditions. ______________________________ ___________________________
Storing Seed

In Colorado, all vegetable and flower seeds will store on a shelf at room temperature for at least one year without significant loss of germination. If there is enough seed for several years, then take further steps to ensure viability.

A 10-year storage life can be achieved by drying seed to less than 8 percent moisture. To do so, dry seed at 100 degrees F for six hours.

[UnknownProphet]

Thanks for contributing to you all, I know this information will help others in the future. And as I wrote that I had an epiphany...One day there will be nutrients directly related to germination/seed creation, I know there already are, but when cannabis is eventually legalized it will be crazy to see nutrients specifically geared for cannabis breeding.

Anyways I just wanted to share some good news of some newly acquired strains which will DEFINITELY go into future breeding projects:
-Nancy Botwin (Purple Urkle X 90s Federation Romulan created by Icer thebandit777)
-Banana Goo (unknown lineage; clone only)
-Chemdog Sour Diesel (My first Reservoir gear ChemD X SD)
-SSSDH (A Rezdog creation but the seeds are from OJD)
-SourLifesaver (BOG Sour Bubble X Lifesaver)
-SourBubble (BOG 2 packs of the BX3/4 mix)
-Yumboldt (Sagarmatha 2 packs; actually I've had these, but they're my latest project)
-Super Lemon Haze (GHS HTCC winner when I went to judge in 08, BTW thx 5leg


Stock I've had that's "on deck" when I get some more space, like a fucking warehouse!
Durch Passion: Jorge's Diamonds #1

-Flying Dutchman: Pineapple Punch

-Grindhouse: Blue Sonja, Sour Bubble BX1

-Sagarmatha: Yumboldt, Peak 19, Blue Thunder, Wonderberry

-Soma Seeds: Sougouda

-THSeeds: Sage, Sage n Sour, Rambo, Heavy Duty Fruity (I actually just gifted these), Da Purps, Mendo Madness, Burmese Kush

-UnknownProphet: NYCD f2, Red Driesel (Red Dragon X NYCD),Blue Driesel (Blue Dream X NYCD), Gob9iesel (Gob9 X NYCD)

My old work* Local Patients Cooperative: Afghooey, Goo, Granddaddy Purple, Trainwreck X Kush, Silver Afghani.

Mommas (at the moment):
-Red Dragon, Blue Dream, NYCD, Jack the Ripper
More coming very VERY soon as germination is currently goin on...ie Yumboldt, Nancy B, Banana Goo, Sour Bubble, BogBubble, GOB9iesel, Blue Driesel, Red Driesel.


And to keep this on subject:
All of my seeds are being stored in a cardboard box inside a tupperware container inside another airtight tupperware container with some desiccants for moisture. They are "chillin" in my mini fridge and I'm thinking of making a package to put in the freezer, because I have a feeling some of these won't be germinated for some years. Please don't jump on my back for hoarding I'm a serious collector and expect my seed collection to rival my body weight when I'm eventually going into the dirt. A little exaggerated yes, but you get they idea, I'm in this for life!

With the seeds I made, I let them dry in the bud for 4 weeks, then into labeled and separate coffee filters for 2 more months. Then I package them individually and throw them in my safe until the six month mark which I will then put them in the fridge. I'm then thinking around a year going to the freezer. I think that would slowly, but surely, decrease the moisture content and make them just about as viable as possible. But it will be years before I know, so you just gotta stay tuned. Patients will see me through....


ʇǝɥdoɹPuʍouʞuU

[SOTF420]

Sounds exciting man, you don't really need to let them sit out that long though. Let them dry in a warm dry room for like two weeks and then put in the fridge with small dessicant packs in their bags. Don't put all the seeds together, no more than like 50 to a pack in case any kind of mold or fungus attack sets in and the more seeds per pack in cold storage the more total moisture there is in an enclosed area. Multiple layers of freezer bags are great for storage and make sure to keep them totally dark!

[UnknownProphet]

Oh and this should also help before I get asked....

A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that induces or sustains a state of dryness (desiccation) in its local vicinity in a moderately well-sealed container.
Commonly encountered pre-packaged desiccants are solids, and work through absorption or adsorption of water, or a combination of the two. Desiccants for specialized purposes may be in forms other than solid, and may work through other principles, such as chemical bonding of water molecules.
Pre-packaged desiccant is most commonly used to remove excessive humidity that would normally degrade or even destroy products sensitive to moisture. Drierite,Silica gel, calcium sulfate, calcium chloride, montmorillonite clay, and molecular sieves are commonly used as desiccants.
Rice is a common "low-tech" alternative frequently used, for example, in salt-shakers to maintain granularity of table-salt for effective pouring or shaking. Rice, however, is not a good general purpose desiccant since, unless immersed in an organism-hostile environment like pure salt, over time may be eaten by creatures that might in turn contaminate the product that is being preserved. Salt itself is another effective desiccant, used for millennia in preparation of dried foodstuffs and also to mummify corpses.
A specific usage of a desiccant would be in double glazing where it is placed inside the spacer between the air space and window edge. This prevents moisture condensation between the panes.

Enjoy preserving genetics....

https://www.uline.com/Grp_21/Desiccan...FQMsawodX3QD9g

Proph.

[SOTF420]

Cut off tips of nice clean sterile q-tips work wonders too

[3dDream]

I've popped 70 seeds that were less than a week old. My experience says that seeds do not need a dormant period (aren't seeds already dormant?).

I have not tested this, but I have read that exposing seeds to light before use helps the germination rate.

[UnknownProphet]

Out of the 70 how many germed, and of those were they all vigorous and what about m/f ratio?


Thanks for sharing 3dDream.

[Jones]

.

[3dDream]

That's what I read. Thanks Jones.

UnknownProphet 68 germed. I did not run them all, I was looking for mutants. I have done this a couple times where I popped beans right after a harvest.