Will seeds still germinate if they are 15- 40 years old?

[Jakey is Bakey]

I got a ton of seeds and some are up to 40 years old, id like to know if its worth planting them? thanks

 

[BygonEra]

No reason not to try

 

[Nizza]

just take a few plates and paper towels, moisten the paper towel inside one plate then put the seeds evenly spaced in there with another paper towel over those ones . make sure it's saturated evenly and put another plate on top, closing it. put in a ~70 degree F environments inside a bag or something to ultimately light proof and check daily after 2 or 3 days. re spray when the towels dry out and if you want to instead of paper towels use "shop towels" they're blue and the roots don't grow through em cause they're way thicker, it avoids a lot of hassle. be careful when u lift the wet towel with the seeds inside because they'll stick to it and fall everywhere and you'll need to re arrange em (which is bad because of the micro root hairs get damaged)
speaking of, try not to use your hands, its a good idea to rinse them first and use tweezers or something to handle them. once the little white root pokes out you can sow it in the dirt like normal, assuring you have a rooted clone
id imaging these have ~15% viability rate

 

[blindbaby]

well, if you dont plant em, noone will know. and who knows! may u will bring back a strein lost long ago. JURASSIC WEED!

 

[BeastGrow]

soak them for a 48 hours and then sow them 1/8" deep in damp soil. then keep them in dark for another day or 2 until you see them pop above the soil. i would imagine if they still look okay they will germinate.

 

[hbbum]

Or you could just put them in a potting tray with a heated mat under them. I don't grow MJ from seed but I do a lot of other types of plants and this method works great. All these methods with soaking the seeds(risking drowning them) and paper towel (risking breaking the taproot) may be part of other peoples ritual but seem like unnecessary risks to me.

I am new to growing this plant though, so who knows.

 

[brotherjericho]

It is, I think. I soak my seeds in water for at least a few hours, sometimes as long as 24 (if I somehow forget!). I typically soak them long enough to see the start of a tap root, which can be as slight as a widening whitish crack on the seed. I then drop the seed into moistened soil.

I think the first part simply comes from our desire to micromanage the grows, particularly if we are small time gardeners and can't afford the time for failed seeds or the space of popping several at a time.

 

[Jakey is Bakey]

these are my seeds, how do they look?

 

[Highlowazupkush]

Is it worth planting them? so the question is not "will they grow", the question is "is it worth spending the time to make them grow", right? because maybe they will not give you as much product to smoke considering how old they are?

I dunno the answer, sorry. You can always try to bring them to life and then just transplant them into somebodies back yard and let them take care of them selves, lol (just kidding) no wait wait I wasn't kidding, you can plant them in my back yard if you want!

View attachment 2703240 these are my seeds, how do they look?

Cramped

 

[brotherjericho]

View attachment 2703240 these are my seeds, how do they look?

Plant 'em all and let god sort them out.

 

[silasraven]

dude what did you do pack up in the 70's and decided today im going to open the boxi have with a giant bag of seeds? where did you get all those seeds. bro pm me if interested in *wink*. i would say give it a shot dude because there could be a historical strain in there.

 

[SeeRockCity]

It's my understanding that it's all about how they were stored.
I germinated some vintage and they smelled like ammonia or something...(not one of the several hundred I had cracked open)
apparently freezing them before they are 2 is required to preserve for any lengthy period of time...

 

[qwizoking]

just do it already!! ..i had some 20 year old seeds germ fine,they were laying in my trucks tool box forever so they were pretty weathered

 

[brotherjericho]

Just don't expect many of them to be as good as today's stuff (or so I've heard).

 

[MarWan]

there is a post on icmag where a grower found some seeds that dates back to the 70s https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=249900

 

[Toss&Turn]

I wish I had those seeds. I wouldn't be asking if they will grow. I would be telling people rather or not they germinated!

 

[Flaming Pie]

I would definitely try em if you are new to growing. Probably bag seed? They might herm on you, but better to to start with free seeds first. =)

 

[BeastGrow]

they look like they would work

 

[Flaming Pie]

How the fuck do you have hundreds of seeds like that?

 

[wahoo]

Do you know if there all the same strain?