Stubborn Seeds

[ozzysteve]

Can anyone help me out with a possible explanation as to why i am suddenly experiencing an extremely low success rate while trying to germinate my seeds?
I have previously been soaking my seeds in s small plastic cup filled with approx 1" of distilled water and placed inside my propagator which is kept inside a dark cupboard and automatically heated to a constant 25c.
In the past i have achieved a 100% success rate and the seeds have always been ready to plant with nice white protruding tails after just 48 hours or less.
However... This time i took 3 plastic cups and placed 8 Lowryder#2 seeds in one, 4 Northern Light in the second cup and 4 White Rhino in the third cup. Added 1" of distilled water to all three cups and put them into my dark room inside my heated propagator.
After 24 hours all seeds have sunk to the bottom of each cup.
After 48 hours all 4 White Rhino had sprouted perfectly...
After 5 days just 1 Lowryder#2 sprouted and 1 White Widow.
After 7 days still no change.
10 days later and still nothing happening with the other 6 seeds...
I decided to assist the remaining seeds by gently and carefully cracking the shells and then put them back into the cups to soak.
10 days later and although all seeds have now absorbed water and swollen so that the fleshy white nucleus can be seen through the crack along the spine of each seed... There still is no sign of life!!
It's 14 days now and im'e wondering if my 6 remaining seeds are dead???...
Where did i go wrong... Or have i just been unlucky this time???
All views are greatly appreciated.

ozzysteve :help:

[M_C]

Can't answer your question bar asking the obvious question of if the water & cups used were the same batch?

My lowryders have all germinated within 24 - 36 hours bar one that took 5 days but I think after 14 days you have to admit it ain't happening :( Sorry :(

[popefull27]

where did you get your seeds from

[jobby2812]

It sounds like your seeds have drowned. I have had this problem in the past. I have just tried to germ 12 seeds about 4 weeks ago. 6 were my auto mix I bred from Joint Doctor and 6 were AK47 x LR that I bred from Lowlife.

I soak my seeds in water in a plastic tobacco tub on the back of my computer. I can get 80-90% germ rate doing it this way with shop brought seeds. Now when it comes to my seeds that I breed I get nearer 30-40% germ rate. I think the reason being is the shells are harder on the seeds I bred compared to shop brought seeds.

Now with my seeds if I see no signs of cracking within 48 hours maximum I crack them myself. I then give them a maximum of another 24 hours in the water. After that I plant straight into soil regardless. Out of my auto mix this time I got all 6 seeds out the ground. As for my AK47 x LR none made it. Some did start their root off but then gave up. I think with a combination of soaking for to long then keeping the soil to damp they drown.

My record for germing seeds is now down to 10 hours. I dropped 4 seeds last night at 12.20am. I have just checked about 20 minutes ago and I have 1 cracked. The average is 24 hours but it can range between now 10 hours to usually 36 hours. Like I said if I get to 48 hours then I pop them myself. Then no longer than 24 hours soaking after before putting into soil.

Germing seeds is probably the hardest part of growing in my eyes. Once I get the seedling out the soil then I find it very hard to kill them. Not that I want to kill them

[ozzysteve]

Can't answer your question bar asking the obvious question of if the water & cups used were the same batch?

My lowryders have all germinated within 24 - 36 hours bar one that took 5 days but I think after 14 days you have to admit it ain't happening :( Sorry :(
In answer to your question:
Yes, the distilled water and cups were all identical and from the same batches...
And yes, i also think the remaining seeds have technically drowned by this time.

[ozzysteve]

where did you get your seeds from
In answer to your question:
The Northern Light and White Widdow were from a major recommend seed supply company...
The Lowryder #2 were my own seeds, only 1 month old since harvested.
I will address this fact in more detail in my message to jobby2812 who has also noticed a similar pattern of events when using (non-shop) supplied seeds.

[ozzysteve]

It sounds like your seeds have drowned. I have had this problem in the past. I have just tried to germ 12 seeds about 4 weeks ago. 6 were my auto mix I bred from Joint Doctor and 6 were AK47 x LR that I bred from Lowlife.

I soak my seeds in water in a plastic tobacco tub on the back of my computer. I can get 80-90% germ rate doing it this way with shop brought seeds. Now when it comes to my seeds that I breed I get nearer 30-40% germ rate. I think the reason being is the shells are harder on the seeds I bred compared to shop brought seeds.

Now with my seeds if I see no signs of cracking within 48 hours maximum I crack them myself. I then give them a maximum of another 24 hours in the water. After that I plant straight into soil regardless. Out of my auto mix this time I got all 6 seeds out the ground. As for my AK47 x LR none made it. Some did start their root off but then gave up. I think with a combination of soaking for to long then keeping the soil to damp they drown.

My record for germing seeds is now down to 10 hours. I dropped 4 seeds last night at 12.20am. I have just checked about 20 minutes ago and I have 1 cracked. The average is 24 hours but it can range between now 10 hours to usually 36 hours. Like I said if I get to 48 hours then I pop them myself. Then no longer than 24 hours soaking after before putting into soil.

Germing seeds is probably the hardest part of growing in my eyes. Once I get the seedling out the soil then I find it very hard to kill them. Not that I want to kill them
Thank you for your very informative reply to my unfortunate situation...
I agree 100% with your observations and your conclusion.
My Original (shop-supplied) Lowryder #2 seeds achieved a 100% success rate when germinating. But this time i used my own 1 month old seeds which do seem to have almost impenetrable shells...
The Northern Light and White Rhino were newly shop-bought from a major reputable supplier... strange that all the White Rhino sprouted within 36 hours, but not so, the Northern Light???
I guess this discovery should be should be noted for future reference when buying seeds in the future... And yes, i would agree with you, that my (home-produced) Lowryder #2 seeds definately seem to possess a much more impenetrable shell compared to the much smaller and fragile looking shop ones...
Guess i'll put this one down as a "learning experience"

[jobby2812]

Just out of curiosity which seed breeders were the White Rhino and Northern Lights? I mean White label, Sensi, Dutch Passion. Not the actual seed shop.

[Burntit]

Thats unlucky man you wana get refunded for that shit

[Tripples]

I went to get some of my lowryder2 x ak47 seeds today for a summer grow - I open it up and it turns out they've sent me white/green seeds which means they are not even viable and should not have been sold to me, What colour were your seeds?

[ozzysteve]

The seeds were from "Nirvana"

[ozzysteve]

The seeds were all fully mature, well sized and with good dark mottled colouration...

[stethelad]

mine were excatly the same from them got 12, 3 germinated but then died once in peat pots rest never even cracked

[John Smith]

try refridgerating them for two weeks before putting them in water.
seeds are well known to hold back a season from sprouting, cool them (not freeze them) first and i find this helps alot

[John Smith]

I went to get some of my lowryder2 x ak47 seeds today for a summer grow - I open it up and it turns out they've sent me white/green seeds which means they are not even viable and should not have been sold to me, What colour were your seeds?
thats bad mate, green or pale seeds are not viable at all, were these bought?

[hull-uk]

some times its not the seed breader to blame there is 100s of variables to look at i would just cut my losses .

but also when i was in amsterdam last year i got 1 packet of feminised blue berry and 1 packet of great white shark when germinated i ended up with alot of males for feminised seeds,
also there looked to be 3 mabe 4 different strains there when i only bought 2
so some times i think there may be a little foul play people doing some home breading ect

[bubbs]

i did have trouble germing white ice by nirvana they were all dud, i did it same method for all, i germed 3 diff lots of seeds same way but the ice did not want to play the game!!:(

[chris1985]

I was told by a friend that if the skins on the seeds are too hard then what you can do is is get the seeds and a match box (the ones with like sand paper on the sides not the safety matches) and then rub the seeds along the side which takes a coat off them, and then your good to go and this is tried and tested as well!

Hope this helps either this time or another time!