Ways To Correctly Store Cannabis Seeds
Cannabis seeds, with their tough outer shell, look pretty hardy. And while nature has clearly designed them to hold up many variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren’t immune. Quick changes in temperature and high humidity, for example, can quickly ruin batches of seeds. Luckily, maintaining your seeds is easy. Keep reading to learn how.
Your Seeds Are Alive
Lots of people forget this, but it’s worth remembering: your cannabis seeds are living organisms. Before they sprout, however, they are in dormant rest, similar to some animals when they hibernate. And like all life forms, seeds can perish. When keeping your seeds, you’ll want to offer them the best conditions to guarantee they remain viable until you’re ready to germinate and plant them.
Optimal Conditions for Cannabis Seeds
Cannabis seeds have four primary enemies:
- Humidity
- Temperature
- Light
- Oxygen
Ideally, you want to store your seeds in cool, dark, and arid place. When possible, keep your seeds in their factory packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we’ve specially designed our packaging to safeguard our seeds until you’re ready to grow them.
If your seeds get exposed to light or sudden changes in temperature, these conditions will make them to deplete their nutrient stores before they ever touch soil, meaning they won’t have the food they need to grow. High humidity, on the flip side, can cause fungi to grow on your seeds.
Impact of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds
Humidity is easily one of the greatest threats to your seeds. Here is how different levels of humidity (% relative humidity) impact your cannabis seeds:
| Levels of Relative Humidity | Impact of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds |
|---|---|
| 80 – 100% | Seeds germinate. |
| 40 – 60% | Seeds boost respiration and seed storage fungi become significant problem. |
| 20 – 30% | Brief storage. |
| 18 – 20% | Mid-term storage. |
| 12 – 14% | Extended storage. |
| 8 – 9% | Shorter longevity than seeds stored at slightly higher humidity. |
Need advice on managing humidity for your plants? The Grow Guide gives key tips for maintaining healthy cultivation environments.
How and Where to Store Your Cannabis Seeds
For temporary storage, a dark cupboard or drawer with consistent temperatures is usually fine. Try to keep your seeds away from areas of your house that are susceptible to the normal temperature changes of your local environment.
If, for example, you reside in a region with very hot daytime temperatures and cold nights, try to safeguard your seeds from these changes and don’t store them outside in garages or garage.
For prolonged storage, it’s best to keep your seeds with desiccants, such as silica gel, https://nativesusa.com/ – https://nativesusa.com/, in an airtight container inside the fridge. Remember that accessing the door of your fridge can actually create some pretty major temperature shifts. If you have have an additional fridge that gets used less often than the one in your kitchen, pick that one to store your seeds.
Again, if possible, keep your seeds in their original packaging. If you do unseal packs of seeds and have extras, transfer the extra seeds directly into a sealed container.
Ziplock bags, for example, are excellent because you can extract all the air from them to create nearly vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once vacuum-sealed, put your bag inside a dark plastic bag or dark container to guard your seeds from your fridge light.
Low-humidity fridges are the top choice to store seeds. The problem is when there is humidity in the fridge, since humidity is the most dangerous enemy for seeds (more dangerous than temperature, light, oxygen…). For this reason, it is preferable to store the seeds in No Frost fridges.
Can You Preserve Seeds in the Freezer?
Yes, cannabis seeds can be kept in the freezer. The lower the temperature, the less quickly they decline. However, it’s typically not necessary to freeze your seeds. Meet the conditions we described above, and you should be able to maintain your seeds for up to five years and still get a high germination rate.
Determining Which Seeds to Plant and Which to Store
When you’re ready to sprout your seeds, check them and germinate any seeds with damage to the outer shell first. The outer shell of your seeds is made to protect the volatile genetics inside. Seeds with damage in the outer shell are much more vulnerable and won’t be stored.
At Royal Queen Seeds, we excel in our work and want to guarantee every grower only has the best genetics in their garden. That means we examine all of our seeds before shipping. If you find any damage to your RQS seeds, contact with our help team immediately.
Methods for Germinating Aged Cannabis Seeds
We’ve all discovered stray seed somewhere at the depths of an old drawer or cupboard. Here are a few tips on how to sprout weed seeds:
Pre-treatment with enhanced carbonated water
Before sprouting your old seeds, try immersing them in carbonated water fortified with fulvic acid, enhancers, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For optimal results, use ambient water and soak your seeds for 12 hours in a dark place.
Score your seeds
Aged seeds often have extremely tough outer shell. Carefully scratching this shell with light sandpaper can help moisture and warmth reach your seed at the time of germination. Try gently scarring your old cannabis seeds just before submerging to help them sprout.
Eliminate your seed’s ridge
The ridge is the somewhat elevated side of your seed. Like other parts of the shell, this ridge can become extremely tough over time. Eliminating it gently with fine Stanley blade can help your seed sprout.
Slice open your seed
In final attempt to sprout your seeds, creating small cut in the outer casing may help. However, this is no guaranteed fix, and you’ll need to be cautious to avoid hurting the inside of your seed. If you harm the embryo, the seed will never sprout.
Remember, some old seeds just won’t germinate no matter how hard you try. When possible, avoid buying more seeds than you intend to plant so as to avoid having any issues at the time of germination.