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reserve your ad hereHey-hey my very green friends, curing and storing cannabis seeds is what we be talking about today. You know, things regarding seeds always blows my mind, like when it comes to my attention that many of you out there just don’t use some of the most important and easy methodologies. Like even sprouting seeds; I know growers that almost fear having to sprout cannabis seeds. Crazy to wrap your head around, if you’re me, LoL.
It is such a cool thing to be able to make some of your own seeds, and have them around and viable for decades to come. It’s pretty easy, and for long storage it all relies on three things…
- You need to be growing your cannabis organically, or otherwise all-naturally.
- After you make your seeds, they need to be cleaned, and then cured.
- Proper storage. Nothing else matters if you have ill-fated seed storage habits.
If curing and storing cannabis seeds interests you, and your understanding of it is a tad fuzzy, I can totally fix you up here today. Let’s spark ‘em if you got ‘em, and read a little bit of wisdom when it comes to curing and storing your cannabis seeds.
Before Curing and Storing Your Cannabis Seeds
I want to really impress you all who are unaware that seeds made using cannabis breeding plants that were grown using synthetic nutrients will not store for very long. No matter how kick-ass your storage is. This is a simple fact; one I have seen proven out many times. Even under the best conditions after the fact, your synthetically bred seeds will only stay viable for a fraction of the time organically bred seeds will.
Allow me to throw some timelines at you. Synthetically bred seeds not stored well will normally be about 40% viable after a few years, and after the 5-year mark you would be lucky to get 2 out of 10 seeds to pop. Even if stored super well in “kryo” (I’ll explain below) they don’t perform a lot better. Fact baybee.
Organically/all-naturally bred cannabis seeds, even if poorly stored will stay about 60%-80% viable after even about 5-7 years. Stored well, you can get 60%-80% viability for at least 10-20 years. Stored “kryo” style you could go 25 years, at least, and even after 4 or 5 decades you could still get at least half the seeds to pop. Kryo storage is in the freezer rather than in the fridge.
Cleaning and Curing Freshly Made Cannabis Seeds
So, you have made yourself some good healthy cannabis seeds. Yay you! ???? But now what? Well, the biggest enemy to your precious seeds is moisture. Also, heat, and especially wide-ranging temperatures within every 24 hours is very harmful. Like 55 deg. nights and 80 deg. days. But even before we worry about any of that, we need to clean up, and then cure our new seeds.
It’s important to remove all the extraneous plant matter you can from the seeds. Seeds themselves are very resilient to decay or mold, however, if a little moisture gets in, mold can get a foothold on other organic matter. Just use a card of some kind and sift out as much bullshit as you can. You can do this easily on a slanted and smooth tray; like a TV type tray.
The Cure
When it comes to curing and storing cannabis seeds, the ‘curing’ part is huge! The good news again here is that it is also super easy to do. Without a cure on them your seeds will sometimes start to decay Anaerobically. I have seen them often times actually start to “melt together” in their sealed containers. Raw seeds, even off of totally dried plants, should not be sealed up until cured.
Just get yourself a nice bowl of appropriate size with high walls. Place the cleaned seeds inside for several days (4 or 5 days), and just swirl them around at least a couple of times per day. The environment just needs to be like what most households run at. Humidity at or below 60%, and temperatures of at least 65 deg. F. Air movement (and a small dehumidifier) near the seeds is also a great thing. You-see? How hard is that?
I have had peeps ask me (many times) why their seeds are all sticking together… Like in the storage containers or baggies. Sticky resin can be responsible for sure. It’s actually the resin itself that can be part of the problem. Resin, in this case, IS extraneous organic matter, heh heh. The swirling of the seeds in the bowl for days wears down most of the resin present. It also helps the seeds to seal themselves totally, with a hard casing.
Storing Cannabis Seeds for Long Term
Okay then, first of all your refrigerator is your go-to storage location for viable seeds for a couple decades at least. Refrigerated seeds also allow access to those seeds easily. Now, that being said, you can also use your freezer (kryo) for long term storage. These seeds are not so easily accessed randomly; however, they will stay mostly viable for many decades. Many-many decades.
When it comes to curing and storing cannabis seeds, the storage is also pretty simple. You will either want some small containers that seal up air-tight, or a food storage type vacuum sealer to put the seeds in bags. Whichever way you go (I use both of these options myself) you will want to then place these storage containers inside another larger one. I like the big plastic coffee “cans” here. They are another layer of air-tight, along with being mostly light-tight which is important when storing for 2 decades plus.
If seeds are frozen, while they are frozen, you need to be very gentle with them. What I do is carefully take any seeds out of the freezer I may need and let them come to room temperature for at least a couple of hours before further handling or germinating. Frozen seeds can be damaged easier so no bouncing them around while frozen.
Curing and Storing Cannabis Seeds Tips
- Exposing raw seeds to some sunshine while in the bowl is a good way to hasten the curing process. You can cure them in just a few days max using sunshine on them a few hours a day while swirling intermittently.
- While swirling your seeds in the bowl, you will notice the day they actually become way less sticky. That’s the day your cure is actually finished.
- Bad seeds tend to “float” on top of your seeds as they are lighter. While swirling your seeds you can collect a little zone of crappy seeds and skim them right off the top with a spoon. This move really helps clean up your seeds to mostly good and viable ones. More detailed removal of bad seeds can be done with tweezers.
- Label all your containers of course, and date them!
Afterword
I hope you all got some good stuffs from today’s article regarding curing and storing cannabis seeds. Grab some killer seeds over at Kingdom Organic Seeds to start your seed making adventures with good sound, sexually healthy, and very potent stock. Here’s another Rev article for your reading pleasure if you are so inclined: MILF Rev’s Rave: Fat Tuesday – Skunk Magazine.
L8r G8rs, I’ll be back here at SKUNK next Tuesday with another article. I hope you all are well out there IRL, it’s some strange times here in the world. My girl and I have kind of OCD style gotten into kayaking whenever the weather permits and I have some free time. Free time is a tough commodity if you’re me lately. But at least once a week we try to go out for a few hours. It’s fun, exercise and sunshine. Great to do baked, pretty inexpensive, and Delta exposure free—LoL.
See ya all on the flip-flop.
- REv ????
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reserve your ad hereI'm The Rev, and I have been with SKUNK for about a decade now. I hail from Southern California, spent mucho time in Northern California, and now reside in Southern Oregon; always coastal. I am an all natural style cannabis grower and I have written a couple books on the subject - check out True Living Organics 2nd Edition on Amazon - I have been growing for over 45 years, and I have been breeding cannabis for over 30 years. Check out kingdomorganicseeds.com to see some exotic selections. Growing connoisseur cannabis is what I teach mostly, growing it in living soil without using liquid organic nutrients to feed the plant. I am also a highly skilled synthetics grower, hydroponics, aeroponics, DWC/SWC/NFT, Ebb and Flow, and soilless, but I cringe when smoking synthetic grown herbs, so for the last 15 years or so I preach the artisan style of all natural growing, specializing in container growing. Cheers and welcome aboard.