You bought your cannabis seeds from our seedbank where we breed them every year for yield, potency and pest resistance, or you just picked a few seeds from a bag of marijuana you got from your friend. Anyway learn how to determine if the seeds are healthy.
Viable, healthy seeds can usually be spotted from their external appearance. A good seed will be well fleshed-out and not crinkled or cracked. Take some seeds into one hand and rub them between your palms. Good seeds will appear to be glossy and gray, gray-green or gray-brown in color and have a good weight with a fleshy appearance. To further test your seed quality, take the selected seeds you intend to plant and drop them into a pan or bowl with distilled water in it. The healthy seeds will usually have enough mass to cause them to sink (it is recommended that this test be performed just prior to planting because the seeds must be kept dry until ready to germinate).
Look at every seed for signs of immaturity meaning the color and patterns on the marijuana seed surface is blended, grey or greenish and the surface is too soft. Too young seeds are also smaller and much lighter than ripe ones and when dropped into the water, premature seeds will not drown, you will see them floating on the water surface.
If you want further deeper tests for viable seeds, take the matter beyond just the external examination. Several internal conditions will affect the ability of the seed to germinate and these are not detectable by the appearance and the water test methods. One reliable test is to randomly select a few seeds from the batch that has a good appearance. Crack them open, smell and taste them. If they have a musty, oily taste, they are probably old seeds and are on the verge of going bad. If you notice any seeds which have a black appearance inside, then fermentation has begun to set in and there is very little chance that such seeds will germinate. Conversely, if they look pale and dusty inside then they are old and will have a low germination rate and produce feeble, sickly plants at best.
Quality viable marijuana seeds are bigger, have clear distinct surface color pattern, are heavy with healthy embrio and the surface is hard. Usually the best quality seeds are those bought directly from a producer over the internet, also quality is very high when buying at specialized marijuana seed shops in countries where law allows retail marijuana seeds commerce.
Perhaps the most reliable test, if you start your selection testing well in advance of planting time, is to simply germinate a small group of randomly selected seeds from those which appear healthy. This will give you a fairly accurate estimate of what to expect from your batch of selected seeds after planting. A germination percentage above 50% is considered excellent for seeds acquired on the streets. Professional marijuana online providers proud themselves with germination ratio of 90% up to 100% and in most cases it is a true promise that will come true.
Of course, germination is the ultimate test, but remember it is not 100% sure, because if it is a grower who doesn’t know how to germinate seeds properly and damages them during germination, you will never know if you had quality seeds or not. That is why if you plan growing marijuana plants every year, and interested in checking out new genetic achievements, be sure to examine your seeds carefully.