"ROUGH" the seeds up?

[hero4u]

Hello.  Getting ready to germinate some seeds.  Someone recentley told me that i should start "roughing" up the seeds and kind of scrape the outer sheel?  Is this true?  Ever heard of this? 

[Restorium2]

Yup. Sand them with sand paper. 

[blackhorse]

1 hour ago, Restorium2 said:

Yup. Sand them with sand paper. 

What does this accomplish?

[semicaregiver]

Think of it as a chick trying to break out of an egg.  The sanding weakens the outer shell of the seed.

Getting seeds to germinate in a man-made environment often requires some interesting tricks.  For example many wildflowers seeds need to be frozen before they will germinate.   They need to go thru a "winter".   In some cases (non cannabis) more drastic manipulation is required.  I had obtained some seeds for a unique perennial that I wanted in my garden.  It turned out that the plant's natural environment was Northern Canadian forests where the seeds would normally go thru several freeze thaw cycles so they had developed very hard shells.  In this case the US Forest Service had developed a protocol for germinating the seeds in a greenhouse.  Part of the process included soaking them in sulfuric acid.  

[Slappy]

The old trick was place a tiny piece of sandpaper inside of a matchbox along with the seeds and shake. I lightly take a fingernail and do it myself, only if the seed hasn't popped in 3 days. Most seeds don't require this. Most seeds pop just fine in Ph'd water, as long as you change it daily. Transplant before seeing ANY discoloration on the taproot, and you're good to go.

Edited August 28, 2019 by Slappy
Forgot info

[wjkingsnorth]

I drop the seeds in water for 24 hours, then tap with my finger so they go to the bottom of the glass. They sit there for another 24 hours. Usually they will be popped and ready for soaking a few days between wet paper towels and then they are ready for the soil.

Edited August 28, 2019 by wjkingsnorth
Misspelling

[Slappy]

33 minutes ago, wjkingsnorth said:

I drop the seeds in water for 24 hours, then tap with my finger so they go to the bottom of the glass. They sit there for another 24 hours. Usually they will be popped and ready for soaking a few days between wet paper towels and then they are ready for the soil.

I would avoid the paper towel method. This is one "ol' wives tales" I stand by in this field. Seeds popped in a paper towel cause microscopic damages that affect the overall genetics of the plant. The first 2 weeks are the most crucial when popping seeds. If there are microscopic damages from removing seeds from paper towel, then that stress counts, and will limit potency, yield, and overall health of the plant. You're better off going straight from the cup to the soil, and spray 3 or 4 times daily with a spray bottle. I use a "dome" which is actually from a used fruit cup. Place that over the seedling until it's too big, then cut the bottom off a 2-liter for the next dome. Use the top portion over the plant, without the cap.

[glued gorilla]

Solo cup of promix, wetted with warmish water then covered with platic wrap with a few holes poked in it, hold platic wrap on and tight with rubber bands.

Make hole fingernail deep,  drop seed in, cover gently with soil , then spray with water to water in.  Then cover as described. Started many many seeds this way, only had one not pop. The one that didn't pop was 7 yrs old. Scaring seeds does work, but not necessary. 90 percent of my seeds have broke soil in 3 days or less. When they pop take plastic off, just give them a little mist a few times a day for the first few days.

[Restorium2]

Just now, glued gorilla said:

Solo cup of promix, wetted with warmish water then covered with platic wrap with a few holes poked in it, hold platic wrap on and tight with rubber bands.

Make hole fingernail deep,  drop seed in, cover gently with soil , then spray with water to water in.  Then cover as described. Started many many seeds this way, only had one not pop. The one that didn't pop was 7 yrs old. Scaring seeds does work, but not necessary. 90 percent of my seeds have broke soil in 3 days or less. When they pop take plastic off, just give them a little mist a few times a day for the first few days.

I read about the sanding of seeds. It was only for really old seeds that harden over time. Never used it because I'm a clone only grower.

Popped about every strain that Attitude has and none of them were even close to my old stock.

Enough of that. Entirely too much time wasted popping seeds and figuring out sex only to find watered down strains. 

[Slappy]

59 minutes ago, glued gorilla said:

Solo cup of promix, wetted with warmish water then covered with platic wrap with a few holes poked in it, hold platic wrap on and tight with rubber bands.

Make hole fingernail deep,  drop seed in, cover gently with soil , then spray with water to water in.  Then cover as described. Started many many seeds this way, only had one not pop. The one that didn't pop was 7 yrs old. Scaring seeds does work, but not necessary. 90 percent of my seeds have broke soil in 3 days or less. When they pop take plastic off, just give them a little mist a few times a day for the first few days.

I used to do that plastic over the top method. However, I attribute a lot of my growing skills to growing autoflowers. If you know anything about autos, great care needs to be taken. Autos had issues using that method, so I scrapped it altogether.

[glued gorilla]

3 hours ago, Slappy said:

I used to do that plastic over the top method. However, I attribute a lot of my growing skills to growing autoflowers. If you know anything about autos, great care needs to be taken. Autos had issues using that method, so I scrapped it altogether.

Interesting, never did an auto. Seems that part would be the same, kinda wierd

[Slappy]

26 minutes ago, glued gorilla said:

Interesting, never did an auto. Seems that part would be the same, kinda wierd

It's just that autos are finicky in general. If you don't acclimate them to less humidity quickly, you'll stunt them. I usually plant more than I want and keep the best. Last time I did autos, I got half a 'bow of C-4 Auto with 4 plants in under 74days. 3 of 4 were fire! Below is a pic of one. I got 3 zips off this one by itself.

[Slappy]

Here's a pic of a different C-4's underside leaf. The actual flowers were so purple, they were almost black.

Edited August 28, 2019 by Slappy
added info

[Wild Bill]

Years ago, when my eyesight was still clear and my hands were steady I used to take a razor blade and put a tiny split in the edge of the seed.