My recently made seeds won't germinate.

I made some seeds recently they dried in the buds for 10 days then another 10 or so days in a bowl in my basement there big brown hard speckled seeds they look better than most of the seeds I've bought over the years! What did I do wrong?

They may have extremely hard shells, and cant crack, on their own.

Try and barely pinch the seed until it slightly cracks.

How are you trying to germinate them?? I myself like to put them directly in water. If that doesnt soften up the shells, nothing will.

But really hard to germinate seeds, I crack myself. Though Ive not had that problem, in a very long time.

I made some f2 seeds this spring and my first test 7 days after harvest was very disappointing. 5 seeds in a paper towel and only 1 popped.
After I recovered from not finding 5 unicorns a week later I tried a batch soaked in h2o for 24 hrs and then into paper towel @ 80deg for 2 days and every seed popped! After a few months they seem to pop in the 80% range. They don't have any stripes and look like seeds we used to get in the bags 50+ years ago. The cross I made f2s with was 75% sativa.

Having trouble germinating? Take a shot glass and use a 1:1 ratio of warm spring water and H2O2 and soak seeds. Should pop In 24 hrs or less. Make sure to keep shotglass warm on a router or cable box

jimihendrix1 said:

They may have extremely hard shells, and cant crack, on their own.

Try and barely pinch the seed until it slightly cracks.

How are you trying to germinate them?? I myself like to put them directly in water. If that doesnt soften up the shells, nothing will.

But really hard to germinate seeds, I crack myself. Though Ive not had that problem, in a very long time.

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I soaked them overnight in a glass of water then put in them in a wet paper towl the next day. The shells are rock hard I can't crack them with my fingers.

I have them in the refrigerator in eppendorf tubes now. somewhere I read that refrigerating fresh seeds helps with germination. Weird shit like this always happens to me and not just with weed either lol.

Many people do harden their seeds in the fridge for 30 days, before planting them, or selling them.

Try squeezing a bit harder. My guess is the fridge wont soften the shells any.

jimihendrix1 said:

Many people do harden their seeds in the fridge for 30 days, before planting them, or selling them.

Try squeezing a bit harder. My guess is the fridge wont soften the shells any.

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I just can't figure out what I did wrong.

You didnt do anything wrong. Luck of the draw for the really hard shells. I cant think of one thing you could have done, to prevent this.

With very hard to pop seeds, I have scarfed the seeds by making a roll of sandpaper and putting the seeds inside the tube and shaking them before I soak them.

popeyesailorman said:

With very hard to pop seeds, I have scarfed the seeds by making a roll of sandpaper and putting the seeds inside the tube and shaking them before I soak them.

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I will give that a try. I just hope all the seeds I made don't give me trouble lol. These are the freeze 7 that are not popping I still have freeze land and freeze land x sweet skunk auto to try.

big bud man 413 said:

I made some seeds recently they dried in the buds for 10 days then another 10 or so days in a bowl in my basement there big brown hard speckled seeds they look better than most of the seeds I've bought over the years! What did I do wrong?

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Sometimes seeds made were the seed mother plant has been fed high levels of synthetic nutrients come out with very hard shells. Sometimes there that hard they wont crack or take too long to crack. Age them well before storing (about 3-4weeks from wen picked off the plant)and when ready put them in the fridge well wrapped up in a air tight jar for a few weeks. Then pull out afew to test and leave them out a bit to adjust to room temps , soak them 12 plus hours and then try to germinate them papertowl method. If they dont crack in a couple days and the shells still seem too too hard just carefully crack them and back to the paper towel method in a warm spot. They should get going. Sometimes over doing the synthetic nutrients builds the shells way too hard but they should still be good seed.

Like Jimmy said place them in the cold then 1:1 try it on a couple..
might benifit trying to get one to crack by brute force aswell

big bud man 413 said:

What did I do wrong?

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You tried to use seeds too early, that were still in their natural, dormant state. You can soak 'em, crack 'em or sand 'em and it won't make much difference. Mother Nature doesn't want seeds germinating during the warm periods of an Indian Summer, just to be killed by winter's freeze. The technical term is innate dormancy and it's common to all seeds, not just cannabis. You have to use a technique called cold stratification to get them to germinate, which is basically putting them in a fridge/freezer in a semi-humid environment for at least a couple of weeks, the longer the better.

Try to recreate the natural environment, in nature plants are pollinated, seeds develops and if not harvested plants will eventually die in winter (or expire). Winter comes, te hey freeze or get really cold (depending on climate) and germinate the next season. A month in the fridge minimum is what I would recommend after drying them out. I typically wait 2 months before germination testing.

Roll a piece of sandpaper into a tube and shake seeds in tube for a good minute. It should scuff them up enough to take on water. I literally just did this tonight. Trying to pop some seeds that might be as old as 30 years.

Throw them in the freezer for a couple of days then try sprouting them.

pegboy said:

Roll a piece of sandpaper into a tube and shake seeds in tube for a good minute. It should scuff them up enough to take on water. I literally just did this tonight. Trying to pop some seeds that might be as old as 30 years.

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As he and others said try to scarify then also a bit of time in the freezer then worst case score em with a scalpel along the seams if sandpaper aint enough you gotta do the cold style thing with ruderal genetics alot of the time to break dormancy with old seeds or field collected ones id always soak them in a mild hydrogen peroxide solution before trying to pop em saves u trouble if they do get going trust me maybe try pinto bean juice too i find old seeds easy to pop if its gonna go it will go its the after bit thats harder some have no reserves left and just die the pinto bean juice is meant to help with those ones ive managed to pop plenty of old ones but only so many make it after germ been my experience

Freeze 7 seeds germinated on the second try after a little while in the fridge! Thanks for everyones help.

Often times hard shelled seeds will benefit from being directly planted into soil and given a very light veg nutrient watered in. Glad to see they popped!