Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Organically Grown Seeds and Seed Storage
Insomeoftheoldercannabis topics fromthe'70sor'80s,suchas
Marijuana Chemistry
byMichaelStarks,
you will note how they say that “wild” cannabis seeds tend to stay viable much longer than domestic vari-
eties, and the reasons for this are a mystery. Actually, in my experience it is much simpler than that: it is
the use, or non-use, of synthetic delivered nutrients that makes a huge difference in how long the seeds
will stay viable for, even in perfect storage conditions. Synthetically bred seeds will last about 2 years on
average just lying around before experiencing a huge drop in viability/germination rates. Organically bred
seeds will stay 100% viable for at least 5 years on average under the same environmental conditions.
To correctly store seeds, all you need to do is put them into an airtight container with no light leaking
into it, and then store it in the refrigerator or freezer. Seeds stored in this manner will stay good for at least
10 years before any loss of viability, and in the freezer I would say the period is more like 20 years. These
time frames are based onorganically bredcannabis seeds. Itcomes downreally toheat andmoisture. Both
of these will be detrimental to seed storage. If storing seeds in the freezer, take extra care to package the
seeds so they cannot move around. If they collide with each other or the container too hard when frozen,
fracturescanoccurthatwillkilltheseed.Basically,theviabilityperiodofseedsisdeterminedbyhowlong
and how often they are exposed to temperatures above 55°F. or so. I have bulk storage cannabis seeds that
I like to freeze, but if I have seeds that I plan to germinate in the next 5 years or so I like to keep them in
the refrigerator. You can freely switch between freezing and refrigerating as well.
There is so much potential in this set of seeds!
Pollen Collection and Storage
This is pretty straightforward, so I have just a few points to share with you regarding this. You can flower
amale(ormales)allbythemselvesandjustcollectthepollenforlateruse.Containersforstorageofpollen
shouldalsobebothlight-andairtight.Iprefertousesmallglassbottles,whichIwrapupinblackelectrical
tape and label before putting into the refrigerator. Pollen stored like this can be used at least 6 months later
and will still be highly viable—but only if you stored it correctly!
