It ends.
As much as I hate to say it. This batch sucked. 8 days so far and out of 12 seeds I got 1, the SSH and its tap root is about 1/2" long. It really hasn't done anything for a few days now that I think about it. I followed their germination guide to the letter. I've germinated that way many times in the past, so didn't mind doing so.
I kept the paper towel moist but not sitting in a pool of water. It never dried out. I also had these sitting on a germination mat that keeps everything at 80f.
About four days in 10 of the 12 had split open. Those two never ended up doing anything after 8 days. The other 10 looked promising with a tap root barely starting to peak out. Then 9 of the 10 stopped in their tracks, and one (the SSH) kept going. It went for about 1/2" and stopped. That was 3 days ago.
So, I popped 1 seed of each three strains to start again. I was hoping for a selection of each strain to clone and choose a mother from, but it looks like this is it. If these take. I'm doing this round a different way though so we'll see.
I'll report back in two days hopefully.
I'm not going to mess around with the warranty on the 80% germination guarantee. Mainly because I don't want to have to prove my case. I already feel going in guilty 'til proven innocent. Some noob that can't sprout seeds or something, I don't know. I've germinated as many seeds as the next guy. It's not my first rodeo. So not seeking the warranty is on me.
I guess the CKS rep on here will read this so my order # was 6701192-CKS for whatever it's worth.
It is kind of weird that the results were the same across the three strains, I admit. Everything was going at a snail's pace. These are strains I've never grown before so I thought they just might need time. No. These are done. Maybe the SSH will pull through, I put it in my cloner and have it on life support, but there aren't any brain waves so far.