Greetings From South Africa

Hey All

Greeting from sunny South Africa.... pleased to come on board here at RIU. A little history real quick.... I used to grow and smoke years ago but gave up both around 2011.... but recently a friend was diagnosed with cancer and has been taking cannabis oil as an alternative treatment... so this has now resparked my interest and I will be growing my own again to make oils....

I have a bunch of seeds that are about 10 years old and so far have managed to germ a feminised Cinnamon and regular Blue Mystic. I have tried to germinate some others of mine (Gypsy's Magical Mystery Mix, Pok Kush x White Giant, Durban Poison x Skunk #1) but even though I have managed to get the root to pop out the seed (paper towel method and soaking in distilled water) they have died when I transplanted to soil.....

I need to get back into swing of germinating well and my old seeds are proving a bit of a challenge. I have some good strains (B-52, Northern Lights, Satori, Neville's Haze Hybrid, Master Kush, Ducksfoot crosses etc) but before I ruin those by germinating them incorrectly I want get some practice in.....

I have dusted off my old growing equioment and currently I have myself a small cloet that measures 24" x 24". I intend to use this to keep 2 or 3 small mothers under CFL lighting. Then for vegging/flowering I have a grow tent that measures 46" x 28" x 66" with a 400W HPS/MH.

I like to grow soil and hydro so my plan is to have 2-3 plants under the HPS at any one time, one in a DWC and the other soil.. I enjoy scrogging so I will be scrogging my hydro and then topping or LST my soil grows.. from my experience hydro grows bigger and quicker than soil so there will be a mix of growing techniques between the to keep the canopies level....

Hydro will be chemical nutrients and soil will be organics.....

So in the meantime... anyone got any solid tips/tricks on how best to germinate old seeds? I really don't want to lose out on some of the good genetics I have here. Especially the Satori, that was an awesome strain and I have only 2 seeds left, I'd like to germ those 2 seeds and hope for a boy and girl so I can make more seeds of that.

Peace out

Welcome

Welcome...and the art of germing old-ish seeds, see it as a 3 step process

to my blog: https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/germination-101.31319/

should I ever finish it ....lol

good luck

I don't like the paper towel method as there is too much of a chance for tap root damage. I germ in a seedling mix, in a 2"x2" peat pot which I cover with plastic wrap until they pop (3-4 days) and then transplant directly into their final home, never removing them from that peat pot, as the roots will grow right through it. 10 years is a long time for a seed to remain viable. Personally, I wouldn't waste the time. Buy some fresh seeds, get fems and don't fuck around. Peace

Enviorment is most important thing when germing they should still pop

Welcome aboard RIU.

Thanks for the welcome all....

Thanks for the germing tips, will look it those.... regarding getting new seeds, I think I am going to give what I got a try first... seeds these days are crazy expensive for us South Africans, and considering our local currency took a 30% dive against the dollar the last few months I'd be crazy to bin what I already have..... It won't cost me anything to give them a try....

Blunt Africa where'd you get the seeds from? really need a good bean bank...

Happy to have you join us.