20+ year old seeds, let's grow 'em

[NorthernOrganics]

Good friends are hard to come by. Lucky me, I got one. An old friend of mine found a hidden stash of herb seeds that he collected between late 90's and early 2000's in his travels of the United States. I help him out from time to time and he showed his appreciation by giving me a bunch of these old seeds. I'm going to grow them here and we will see what's in there. I'm hoping to find some good old school and share it with people who appreciate that kind of thing.

 

[NorthernOrganics]

Normally I plant seeds directly into soil to germinate. I want to be able to monitor these old seeds a bit more so I'm going to try 6 in a paper towel. I dust all my seeds in great white mycorrhizae, so I did the same here before putting in wet paper towel and tucking in a warm place.
I just picked 6 random seeds.

 

[7munkee]

I'd refrigerate them for a day or two. It may help the germination rate, especially being old seeds.

 

[NorthernOrganics]

What's the reasoning behind refrigeration? I'm just curious. My thoughts are that seeds are designed to go in the ground. The embryo of the seed needs some food to start. Over time the food stores are dried out in the seed. So I soaked a paper towel in some really light compost tea, dusted the seeds in mycorrhizae, seeds in the towel and put it in a warm dark place to simulate them being in soil. I want to see them germinate, otherwise I'd just put them in dirt like I normally do.

 

[7munkee]

Simulate winter and spring I'd assume.

I don't know if its grow science or bro science.

 

[NorthernOrganics]

Maybe I'll put a couple in the fridge if these have trouble sprouting, a little side by side test. I always thought we wanted warm for seeds/seedlings, always works for me.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Looks like great fun! Along for the ride

 

[Ganjadad]

Good friends are hard to come by. Lucky me, I got one. An old friend of mine found a hidden stash of herb seeds that he collected between late 90's and early 2000's in his travels of the United States. I help him out from time to time and he showed his appreciation by giving me a bunch of these old seeds. I'm going to grow them here and we will see what's in there. I'm hoping to find some good old school and share it with people who appreciate that kind of thing. View attachment 1306634

This should be fun. I’ve been waiting for you to play around with these. I’m sure we’re all very curious. I’m definitely in

 

[tobh]

IIRC cannabis doesn't require and/or benefit from cold stratification (that's what refrigeration does). If it did, we would have to do it every time we start from seed. Varieties that do include papaver somniforum, passiflora, coriandrum sativum, humulus lupus, etc.

There's an old thread around here that discusses processes for starting super old seeds, like seeds older than a few years given vitality significantly drops after a while depending on storage. Some bits that may help if you experience seeds not starting:

• scarify the seed shell with a rolled up piece of sand paper. Don't need super aggressive grit, 300 should be adequate. roll it up like a straw, grit on the inside, cover one end drop the seed in, then shake it like it's your weiner during alone time until it's nice and scuffed up.
• soak the seeds for 24 hours in water
• give the seeds a bath with hydrogen peroxide then soak for 24 hours. h2o2 bath help break down the seed shell and let moisture in which triggers the growth hormones telling the seed "let's go!" it will also help kill any pathogens that may be on the outside of the shell which could lead to damping off or other diseases a seedling from old seed stock may not have the umph to overcome.
• gibberellic acid (GA3) soak for 24 hours. this is a PGR, so use it as a last resort. It can lead to etoliation of branches, but also serves to stimulate the growth hormones of a seed. Do not use past getting a seed sprouted! Also, it may be of limited accessibility in some countries. If you can obtain it, keep it in its original packaging as the look of it resembles speed (white, crystalline powder). Smells nothing like speed, but LEO won't give a shit when they see an unlabeled white powder.
• crack the seed shell just slightly (there's even a tool for this)
• mix and match the above until you get a handful that actually sprout and don't stall at the seedling stage

best of luck! i managed to save a project I'd started over a decade ago with a pretty long stint between grows (so super old, not stored properly seeds) which I was able to get three parent plants going and renewed the line with F2s. I ended up doing scarification, h2o2 rinse, ga3 soak, and those were what popped.

 

[NorthernOrganics]

"insert knowledge here"

All great info, man. I've read alot on the topic, and will be trying more aggressive stuff like scarification if I have high failure rate initially. I've also read about removing the embryo from a seed and planting directly in sterile fluffy medium, requiring a microscope and lab environment. Starting small, simple, organic is where I'm at right now. Maybe a microscope for Christmas if these don't pop...

 

[tobh]

removing the embryo from a seed and planting directly in sterile fluffy medium, requiring a microscope and lab environment

ugh, now you've sent me down another rabbit hole. recently unlocked working with agar for mycological purposes, and have dove into researching tissue culturing, and now this....

i may or may not be trying to sprout a seed embryo in the coming days because of you haha

 

[NorthernOrganics]

I peeked at the seeds yesterday. The shells turned dark and seemed dry and papery. I used some 220 sandpaper to rough up the surface and the shells fell apart revealing the innards. Some of the shells split right in two, some just cracked up. I dusted with a little more mycorrhizae and put them back in the paper towel.

 

[Ganjadad]

I peeked at the seeds yesterday. The shells turned dark and seemed dry and papery. I used some 220 sandpaper to rough up the surface and the shells fell apart revealing the innards. Some of the shells split right in two, some just cracked up. I dusted with a little more mycorrhizae and put them back in the paper towel. View attachment 1308008

Hopefully they’ll wake up soon. Maybe a bit more heat?

 

[KYSEAN]

Good friends are hard to come by. Lucky me, I got one. An old friend of mine found a hidden stash of herb seeds that he collected between late 90's and early 2000's in his travels of the United States. I help him out from time to time and he showed his appreciation by giving me a bunch of these old seeds. I'm going to grow them here and we will see what's in there. I'm hoping to find some good old school and share it with people who appreciate that kind of thing. View attachment 1306634

Good luck. I'll follow along for this fun ride. Could be very interesting

 

[NorthernOrganics]

Tried those first six in a cup of water for a couple days, nothing but white fuzz and mushy seeds. Back to the drawing board. I'm thinking I'll do 6 more in some h202 water.

 

[JerzeyMike]

Northern, I have almost the exact same scenario going on. My guy was military, same tine frame and all. I also have not been able to pop a single one. I have done h202 and water into paper towels. Heres say two in the papertowels.
Good luck with yours, back to the drawing board here.

 

[NorthernOrganics]

Northern, I have almost the exact same scenario going on. My guy was military, same tine frame and all. I also have not been able to pop a single one. I have done h202 and water into paper towels. Heres say two in the papertowels.
Good luck with yours, back to the drawing board here.

Hopefully one of us has some success. I tried manually scarifying the shells and splitting some of them. I think the h202 will chemically scarify them and clean the surface, then I'm thinking slightly acidic clean water with a tiny bit of kelp extract. That's my next try I think.

 

[NorthernOrganics]

I thoroughly cleaned a small glass, put 6 seeds, covered with water and filled the rest of the glass with 3% h202. About 2:1 ratio of 3%H202 to water. Seeds are floating, not sure if that's a bad sign. Put it somewhere warm. Round two.

 

[BigSalty420]

Unless stored 100% airtight,lightoroof, and away from extreme temperature changes your odds are pretty slim my friend. Wishing you the best of luck!!

 

[bongsmoker421]

I thoroughly cleaned a small glass, put 6 seeds, covered with water and filled the rest of the glass with 3% h202. About 2:1 ratio of 3%H202 to water. Seeds are floating, not sure if that's a bad sign. Put it somewhere warm. Round two.

20:1
20 parts water to 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide, soak for 8-12 hours and plant directly into soil. don't over water once in soil. try this out, it gave me success with some seeds over 20 years. they popped and sprouted, but stunted afterwards. i read online the older the seed, the easier they drown.