Straight forward old seed starting solution….

Hello all,
I'm looking to pop 10 year old seeds. They are good so i dont want to mess them up. Right now im trying 3% period diluted to 1%. Soaked for an hour, put into root riot peat pods. Im thinking about adding sugar 1% to the solution. Would botanicare raw work for that? 1 ml per 100ml of solution? Im using a seed mat set at 75 degrees.
let me know what you all think….

What would the sugar do? Sugars feed microbes. Not plants
I have some really old thug pug seeds that I can't get to crack unless I do the old paper towel method. Not my fav but it seems to work for those older stubborn seeds.

Worm castings or a sea weed/marine extract like nitrozyme is said to help older seeds germinate better and help vigorous growth, scarifying the seeds wouldn't go wrong i don't think?

I saw an old trick where a guy took a small box for wooden matches and glued a couple pieces of fine sandpaper on the interior of the box, put the old seeds in it and shook it for awhile to scarify the shells before putting them into some water to germ.

If you take a tub/paper cup and cut a strip of sand paper for the wall and circle for the bottom it holds itself in place with pushing out.

Put the seeds in cup and swirl them around it for 5/10 minutes then soak them.

Jjgrow420 said:

What would the sugar do? Sugars feed microbes. Not plants
I have some really old thug pug seeds that I can't get to crack unless I do the old paper towel method. Not my fav but it seems to work for those older stubborn seeds.

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From what ive read seeds contain carbohydrates, which are essentially a sugar, to give the seed enough energy to sprout. When a seed is stored for a long time, the carbohydrates break down so the seed no longer has the energy to sprout. By adding 1% sugar to the solution, it gives the seed much needed energy to crack the seed and get moving in life.
Anyone try this method? If so, what sugar are you using and how much?

What about something like coconut water, it has the necessary carbohydrates a coconut needs to grow, I've seen bits and pieces about using coconut idk if it was a bro science thing but Google might help?

Ive also read coconut water can help also, thanks. I may give it a try.
Has anyone used DMSO for starting seeds? Im experienced with seed starting, these are just old, not popping, and valuable to me. Ive tried my usual paper towel technique and also root riot peat pods. All work on my usual seeds, just not on the old ones. Im currently trying peroxide 1% diluted. This is bumming me out hard. Ive been excited to get thes

gabemote79 said:

From what ive read seeds contain carbohydrates, which are essentially a sugar, to give the seed enough energy to sprout. When a seed is stored for a long time, the carbohydrates break down so the seed no longer has the energy to sprout. By adding 1% sugar to the solution, it gives the seed much needed energy to crack the seed and get moving in life.
Anyone try this method? If so, what sugar are you using and how much?

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A plant doesn't absorb sugar from the roots. So I can't see how that would help.

gabemote79 said:

From what ive read seeds contain carbohydrates, which are essentially a sugar, to give the seed enough energy to sprout. When a seed is stored for a long time, the carbohydrates break down so the seed no longer has the energy to sprout. By adding 1% sugar to the solution, it gives the seed much needed energy to crack the seed and get moving in life.
Anyone try this method? If so, what sugar are you using and how much?

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I've heard pinto bean juice might help with that you should maybe try some gibberellic acid on em too if you any handy as others said kelp and ewc can help too good luck mate ten years ain't so old so should be not so bad as long as they been stored in a cool dark place

You can use sugar to rejuvenate old seeds, but you also want a tiny amount of some other nutrients in the hydration media too. Probably be better off buying a small bottle of pre-mixed media powder, made specifically for regeneration of seeds for plant tissue culture purposes. Or look up the proper cannabis seed re-gen protocols, and use the recipes they call for.


The problem is, the sugar does feed microbes.. So, you want to completely "sanitize" the seed first, and then hydrate & germinate it in vitro (inside a sterilized container\vessel that was autoclaved along with the media) so it doesn't get contaminated during the process.. The open air is full of competitive organisms and spores blowing around, just waiting land on some of that yummy sugar water.

Just plant the darn things.

If you already have a pressure cooker (or an instant pot, perfect for sterilizing agar/media), you pretty much have it made. I wouldn't waste money on the microclone or the other seed starter kits. They expect you to use your microwave as an autoclave, and open the sterilized containers right out in the open air without a laminar flow hood or anything, lol..

For the same price as those kits, you could buy a second hand instant pot (perfect for sterilizing liquid agar and tissue culture medias in, or the tools wrapped up in tin foil, etc), and get a few packs of cheap "pp5" grade plastic food storage containers at the store to use as the vessels. Get a large 100+ qt clear storage tote, and cut two 5-6" openings out on one wall for the arm holes to reach in through. Set it upside down on a clean table in a room with no drafts, and you now have a still air box to work inside of and prevent contamination from entering your containers, without needing to spend 100s or 1000s on a laminar hepa flow hood.. Use bleach and or ethanol & water to soak/wash the seeds, and make your own hydration solution from regular sugar and a small amount of nutes. I kinda like the coir medium idea, but probably rather just go straight into gelled TC media, so buy a bottle of premix media too. Other than that you just need a pair of tweezers, maybe a scalpel, and a small torch to burn the business ends off before use.

I’ve seen suggestions to put the seeds into a freshly cut aloe vera leaf, because it naturally has some gibberilic acid, which will help them pop. Also, the wormcasting trick has been advised, for the natural enzymes and beneficial bacteria. On another forum that will not be mentioned, these tips seem to be among the top suggested (as well as the various scuffing techniques). Gibberilic acid by itself has been suggested, but the dosage is tricky, and it cases elongation and possibly even mutations if too much is used.

If they are really special seeds, look into ”embryonic rescue”- which is what @Drop That Sound is describing.

. This video isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but I had to drop her channel here because it’s pretty awesome to learn about tissue culture and other “home lab” types of growing applications.

"Embryonic rescue", that was the term I was looking for, thanks!

I've heard you can also TC the premature seed ovule/embryos, way before they even develop. Pick them right out of the buds within days of being pollinated, and go straight to TC multiplication stages. Skipping months of time and energy it would naturally take to mature in the sack and then germinate into a seedling.

I have 3 banana breath seeds that are in root riot peat pods, on a seed mat, set at 75. Its been 4 days and nothing. Normally my seeds pop easy. At the same time I started 2 seeds from GI genetics that i bought in April at the wu tang concert. They both popped but sadly still no banana breath. Now, im trying some diluted peroxide 1% solution on some freebies i got years ago from GLG. We will see how it goes….
Embryonic rescue may be my next try. Im low on these old beans, starting to stress a bit.

Star Dog said:

What about something like coconut water, it has the necessary carbohydrates a coconut needs to grow, I've seen bits and pieces about using coconut idk if it was a bro science thing but Google might help?

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What about maple tree sap? Raw sap out of the trees is around 1-3% sugar (depending on the species of tree and season), and is sterile right out of the tap as is. The most natural sugar water you can get afaik. I bet you could save other diseased trees by tapping them both, and running a line from the healthy tree to the sick tree and perform a "blood" transfusion. What if you could intravenously inject tree or other plant saps directly into a cannabis plant during the last week of flower?

I've always wanted to try brewing a bucket of ACT using maple sap, instead of adding molasses. I like syrup too much though..

What about cannabis syrup? Grow out a bunch of huge trees, just so you can drain them of all the sap they're worth. Hookup the tap lines into a vacuum pump, and suck them dry, lol. Just so you can boil it down into a sugary syrup. You know.. for embryonic seed rescue purposes...and pancakes.

Drop That Sound said:

What about maple tree sap? Raw sap out of the trees is around 1-3% sugar (depending on the species of tree and season), and is sterile right out of the tap as is. The most natural sugar water you can get afaik. I bet you could save other diseased trees by tapping them both, and running a line from the healthy tree to the sick tree and perform a "blood" transfusion. What if you could intravenously inject tree or other plant saps directly into a cannabis plant during the last week of flower?

I've always wanted to try brewing a bucket of ACT using maple sap, instead of adding molasses. I like syrup too much though..

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Sap is not sterile out of the tap.

I have also injected different types of sugars into branches of budding plants. Nothing happened.