Seeds from the 70's

[DirtyDave 1]

38 years ago when i was in college i smoked some of the best weed i have ever smoked. The buds were almost black and hard as can be. I remember being told the stuff was from indonesia. Well i was going thru some of my old stuff. I found a box with college junk in it and found a black film cannister. Well you guessed it. Inside were the seeds i saved from that weed almost 40 years ago along with a second pack of seeds that were saved at the same time. About 25 seeds total. Back then seeds came in all weed. I threw tons of seeds away back then so for me to save those seeds means they were very special.  I am a new grower in a legal state and can grow my own meds now. I have one grow under my belt and trying to learn and absorb all i can. I dont want to screw this up. I think these seeds could very well be rare and a strain not seen for quite some time. I have never seen anything like it since. Will these germinate? What should i do? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[MedicineMarcus 1]

I dont know if uve got a reply but i am new to this site but not growing, much younger than you but very knowledgeable. 15+ yrs growing both in and outdoors, and what I can give you is just some good advise. I am a firm believer in organic soils, and feeding the soil and not the plant if you know what i mean. I would take those good old seeds you have and find a small container with a lid like Tupperware or something and find some none bleached paper towel or napkins, the brownish colored ones u get from Taco Bell or KFC, take the napkin and lightly moisten it with drops of warm water until it is damp all over, not soaked with dripping water, u get the point, just make sure its moist and not soaked, place in container, place seeds close together on it and fold over the other half of the napkin on top of the seeds covering them and making sure the moist napkin is in contact with them. Place lid on and place in a dark but room temp. Wait about 2-3 days before checking on them, if they haven't cracked make sure papertowel  or napkin is still moist and recover and wait a few more days. Within 5-10 days you should have a few that cracked, once you see the little white tap root coming out of the seed, make sure it doesn't get to long before it's put into soil/soilless mix, and do not fertilize until it has a min. Of three sets of leaves. Good luck and would love to hear if you have luck with seeds that old, but I've heard of older still germinating. And the way i described seems to work the best for germinating older seeds. Cheers!

[DirtyDave 1]

Thank you for the advice. I know these are very special and really hope it works.

[Dust 6,284]

With some very old seeds i know people like to soak them as well for a day before germinating, with some rooting boosters whatever organic product, and it usually works good for them. But a good wet paper and humid place is good as well  Make sure the temp is minimum 22 in the room where you will let the box, not too hot neither otherwise they could rot but not cold neither  

 

Good luck and dont forget to share photos if they germinate will be nice to see some hippie sativas probably

Cheers

[Big Sur 61]

I have many seeds from the 70s and 80s, but they have been kept frozen and dry for all these years. The main issue with old seeds is that they may no longer be viable. This is more common in places like the US South, where it is very humid and gets very hot for long periods of time. In places like the US west where it s a lot drier and cooler, seeds can be kept a lot longer w/o being frozen. But they can last indefinitely if they are kept cool or frozen, and most importantly: kept dry. Now this brings up the issue of whether or not Cannabis seeds can be frozen and kept viable or not. Many so called "experts" in published books and magazines on Cannabis claim that they cannot be frozen and remains viable. I have had many debates on other forums about this, and many still claim that it is impossible. However, I point out that many of my landrace seeds have remained viable, and 2 years ago I got a 100% germination rate from 2 strains frozen for 10 and 30 years, respectively. Also in several older books on Cannabis, they talk about several scientific studies done (in Japan) where Cannabis seeds were frozen for longer periods of time and then thawed and germinated. I would also point out that in central Asia, in places like Siberia and Turkistan where Cannabis commonly grows wild, they get a long and hard winter where temperatures get well below freezing every year, and wild Cannabis seeds survive being frozen and sprout every spring there.

 

That aside, one thing I have noticed is that with age, Cannabis seeds get a harder shell from the resins aging over time. So to allow water to penetrate the seeds and induce them to germinate, you need to scratch or scar the seed surface before you plant them or wrap them in wet paper towels. They can also get weaker with age, and you may have to help the seeds by prying them open with tweezers to get the hinge top pop open and the seed halves to pop off of the cotyledon leaves. I have found that you may also want to soak the seeds in hydrogen peroxide for a few hours before trying to germinate them, as they can pick up fungal spores that can cause dampening off and early death of your seedlings. I have found that indica strains tend to be more susceptible to this than my Latin America landrace sativas in my seed collection.

 

Also it sounds like your Indonesian strain was related to a South India ganja strain that I smoked in the 70's. Almost black, and sticky as all heck, and a really string high. Best weed I have ever smoked to this day, that was. Only had one ounce of it in 1975. It was seedless though.