So i read on the web somewhere that auto flowering seeds can fail to germinate due to having a shell so hard that they can't break out of it. I have recently germinated a lot of LowRyder 2 and i tried this presplitting technique out.

I started with 60 seeds, soaked them in Distilled water for 24 hours and most of them sank. Then i moved them to a wet paper towel and let them sit another 24 hours. After this time about 1/2 had popped out little taproots and were moved into peat pucks, I then applied the presplitting technique to the remaining seeds by either rolling them between my finger and thumb till i heard them crack, or squeezing them on the sides with a small pair of tweezers till they cracked. Inside of another 24 hours nearly all the remaining seeds had shot out taproots and were moved to peat pucks.

I remember reading about this technique once and posting in disbelief that i could never do that to my seeds. That was before i started growing LR2 and now i see the technique being a well used tool in my germination rituals. It is scarry but it's not hard to do and once you see how well it works you will be a believer forever. I would assume this would also work on nearly any seed your having a hard time with but i have never had to use it on a non-auto flowering strain. They really seem to have a shell to tough for there own good.

I did it to some seeds today after reading another thread about it. My question is, how long did you let your seeds dry before you germinated them. I have some seeds that are going on 4 weeks drying and they arent germinating yet, so i cracked them to see if i can get them to go. LRDiesel x ak47kush

__________________
"If its good enough for God herself to put on Mother Earth, then its good enough for me." You've got a gun, I've got a plant, who's the real criminal?

I heard 4 weeks is the magic number. But i must confess i ran did this run at 2 weeks and all went well for me. I even tried 3 at 1 week and they all germinated aswell. What do your seeds look like? Are they hard & dark brown or are they a light color? I had to Let My LR2 go 11 weeks to get good seeds, how long did you let it go for?

I seems to me that what we are really doing here is an extreme form of scarification, I t may work just as well to lightly sand the seeds with fine grit sand paper before we germ them. But i don't have any sand paper and this technique worked great for me. Maybe you could try with sand paper and just make a few thin spots in the shell.

all but two popped out the root out of 20, that isnt too bad. after i did the splitting, i just did each one in my teeth like a sunflower seed, it was the only way i could be gentle enough, with the pliers i was smashing every other one. out of 20, that isnt too bad. my seeds vary from greenish brown, to brown with black stripes, to solid brown, to solid brown with light brown stripes. Tje seeds are tiny tiny little seeds compared to the diesel seeds, which are about twice the size.

__________________
"If its good enough for God herself to put on Mother Earth, then its good enough for me." You've got a gun, I've got a plant, who's the real criminal?

yeah like i said tweezers was the ticket for me. Now that i hear you mention it it seems like auto seeds tend to be bigger then most. I have hundreds of lr2 seeds along with a LR2 x Bc Mango cross i made and the LR2 seeds are all lie 2-3 times the size of the cross. I have a few seeds in my collecton and short of a recent delivery the Lr2 is bigger then all of them. Maybe this is the reason they need to be presplit so much more then other strains.

Never had this problem with lowryder seeds they seem to be just like any other pot seed to me.

same here 10/10 with the auto aks i just got in

I never said every seed would need it, but now if you ever run into a tough to germinate strain you have another tool to use. That was my only intention. By all means if your seeds are popping just fine i wouldn't even consider pre-splitting. But if you get some seeds that are huge and tough to germ, give it a shot.

I had this problem till I read this post !Thank you for this . My auto AK47 shells was very hard and my seeds only germinated after pre-splitting.

Very Intresting thread, always good to learn something new

Cheers

mj123