Seeds Germination & Storage

How to germinate cannabis seeds

To ensure that the problem comes from the seed and not from our germination system, we recommend to follow these steps to correctly germinate your seedlings:

1.- Take a dish or any flat container and some paper napkins.

Paper napkins and water

2.- Place your seeds between two paper napkins.

Place the seeds between two napkins

3.- Wet the napkins and keep them humid for the next 3/4 days. You can use a mixture of 100ml of tap water with 1ml of hydrogen peroxide.

Moisten both napkins

4.- After 3-4 days, you can see that your seeds have sprouted. If they haven’t, replace the napkins for new ones, also humid.

Seeds sprouting

5.- Soak some jiffys (peat pellets) in tap water to hydrate them. This process takes a few minutes. You can add some root stimulator to the water (follow manufacturer’s instructions).

Soak your jiffys in water to hydrate them

6.- Once your peat pellets are hydrated, make a small hole on each of them and gently place the germinated seeds in the holes, always with the small root downwards (see picture). Cover the seeds with a thin layer of substrate (about 5mm).

Put one seed in each jiffy

7.- With a little bit of patience, after 3-4 days we will se the first plants sprouting.

Young plants sprouting after a few days

8.- After a few days, your seedlings will be ready for planting, either in pots/containers or in-ground.Notice that you can improve your germination ratios by using gibberellic acid – mostly used for germinating old seeds – auxins and cytokinins or several products like B.A.C. X-seeds , which will improve the germination capacity of your seeds while keeping fungus and other unwanted infections away.If you keep your seeds warm while germinating them, the process will be faster, but remember that the napkins will also dry faster, so you will have to carefully check their humidity level to keep you seeds always humid, but not soaked. It is better to germinate your seeds keeping them in a warm, ventilated and dark place. Many people use small propagators for a better controlled enviroment, improving their germination results.The periods mentioned in this post are merely orientative; some seeds may germinate in 48 hours, while others may take 10 days or more. Be patient and renew your wet napkins every 3-4 days.

Storing cannabis seeds

Since they are living organisms, cannabis seeds must be stored under certain temperature and humidity conditions, otherwise they gradually lose their germination potential, what may cause the germination process to take up to 6-7 days. In worst cases, seeds don’t even germinate, when they should have done it within the first 48-72 hours since we started the germination process.

Cannabis seeds stored with silica gel (Photo: Dinafem)

Since cannabis seeds are relatively expensive, we should know how to properly store them so we don’t waste money and time for not having our seeds correctly stored before the germination process begins.

Optimal conditions for storing cannabis seeds

Most grow shops and seed suppliers store their seeds in refrigeration chambers, thus creating the perfect environment to maximize the longevity of the seeds.

Temperatures between 4º and 8ºC and humidity levels between 10% and 20% are perfect to keep cannabis seeds in perfect conditions. Seeds should also be kept away from any light source, since it is another factor that can harm our seeds and decrease their germination potential.

Silica gel crystals absorve humidity

Thus, the best way to store our seeds can be an opaque, airtight container containing few silica gel sachets to keep humidity levels low (remember that the ideal humidity should be 10-20%). Put the container in the fridge; normally, people have their refrigerators at 4ºC, so putting the container inside the vegetable shelf is the best option, since temperatures are slightly higher there (as we mentioned, seeds should be kept at 4-8ºC).

Cannabis seeds can be perfectly viable after more than 7-8 years if kept in good conditions, what can be reduced to few years (2-3) in case of not meeting these parameters. We have recently (2015) tested 25 seeds harvested in 2007 with a 24/25 germination ratio. Those seeds were kept as this post explains.