Grow Guide Topic Finder

• Growing cannabis step by step
  • The Cannabis Cultivation Timeline
  • How To Grow Weed in 7 Easy Steps
  • How to Grow F1 Hybrid Cannabis Seeds
• Cannabis growing basics
  • Growing Cannabis: Understanding the Basics
  • Let's get started
  • How To Water Cannabis Plants: A Comprehensive Guide
• Choosing your seeds
  • Selecting The Best Outdoor Marijuana Seeds For Your Climate
• How to germinate seeds
  • The Complete Guide To Germinating Cannabis Seeds
  • Mastering The Cannabis Seedling Stage In Just 3 Steps
  • How and When to Transplant Cannabis Seedlings
• The cannabis vegetative stage
  • The Growth or Veg phase
  • How And When To Transplant Your Cannabis Plants
• The cannabis flowering stage
  • When To Switch Your Cannabis Grow From Vegetative To Flowering
  • The Flowering Stage Of Cannabis Week By Week
  • The blooming phase
  • The last weeks of blooming
• Harvesting cannabis
  • When To Harvest Cannabis Plants
  • The Importance Of Pistils To Cannabis Growers
  • Harvesting Cannabis: Find The Right Time
  • Is It Better To Harvest Your Cannabis Early Or Late?
• Trimming, drying, and curing
  • How To Dry Cannabis Quickly
  • Trimming Your Cannabis Buds: Wet Trimming Vs Dry Trimming
  • Top Tips To Successfully Dry And Cure Your Fresh Cannabis Buds
  • How to Cure Your Cannabis Buds
• Choosing pots and soil
  • What Is The Best Growing Medium For Cannabis?
  • Choosing The Best Soil For Cannabis: A Home Grower's Guide
  • How To Create Your Own Cannabis Super Soil Mix
• Growing indoors
  • A Complete Overview Of Growing Cannabis Indoors
  • Cannabis Cultivation Tips: How To Set Up Indoor Grow Lights
  • How Many Cannabis Plants Can You Grow Per Square Metre?
  • Indoor Cannabis Growing: Relative Humidity and Temperatures
  • Hydroponics Cannabis Growing Guide (with diagrams)
  • Cannabis Micro Growing: Growing Great Weed in Tiny Spaces
• Growing outdoors
  • How To Grow Cannabis Outdoors in 2024
  • The Basics of Cannabis Outdoor Growing (Part 1)
  • Hot Tips For Growing Weed In Cold Weather
  • List Of Companion Plants For Quality Cannabis
• How to grow autoflowering cannabis
  • Learn How To Grow Autoflowers: Week-By-Week Guide
  • Maximum Yield With Autoflower Cannabis
  • The Best Soil For Growing Autoflowering Cannabis
  • The Perfect Light Schedules For Autoflower Cannabis
  • Tips For Growing Autoflowering Cannabis Indoors
  • Tips For Growing Autoflowering Cannabis Outdoors
• Cannabis nutrients and pH
  • Understanding pH and How It Affects Cannabis Plants
  • Cannabis Nutrients: Why, How, And When To Feed Your Plants
  • RQS Nutrients: The Best Fertilisers for Cannabis
  • Cannabis & Water Quality Part 2: PPM & EC
  • Molasses: An Excellent Supplement for Cannabis Plants
  • How and When to Flush Marijuana Plants
• Cannabis troubleshooting: Nutrients
  • Nutrient Burn In Cannabis Plants
  • How to Prevent and Treat Nutrient Lockout in Cannabis
  • How To Prevent And Fix Every Cannabis Nutrient Deficiency
• Cannabis troubleshooting: Growing
  • Cannabis Seed Germination — Troubleshooting Guide
  • How to Deal With Pythium (Root Rot) in Cannabis Plants
  • Slow Cannabis Plant Growth And What You Can Do About It
  • How to Prevent and Fix Stretching in Cannabis Seedlings
  • Watering Your Cannabis: How To Fix Over And Underwatering
  • Understanding Male, Female, And Hermaphrodite Cannabis
  • Identifying and Treating Common Cannabis Ailments
  • How To Revive a Sick Cannabis Plant
  • How to Avoid Mouldy Weed During Drying and Curing
  • How to Prevent and Treat Dry and Crispy Cannabis Leaves
  • What Cannabis Leaves Can Tell You
  • Yellow Cannabis Leaves
• Cannabis Strains Grow Report
  • HulkBerry Automatic Grow Report
  • Blue Cheese Auto Grow Report
  • Purple Punch Automatic Grow Report
  • Triple G Automatic Grow Report
  • Do-Si-Dos Automatic Grow Report
  • Green Gelato Automatic Grow Report
  • Haze Berry Automatic Grow Report
  • Purple Queen Automatic Grow Report
  • Cookies Gelato Automatic Grow Report
  • Sherbet Queen Automatic Grow Report
  • Sweet Skunk Automatic Grow Report
  • Medusa F1 Grow Report
• Cannabis plant training
  • Growing cannabis with the SCROG (Screen of green) method
  • How To Perform Low Stress Training On Cannabis For Better Yields
  • Marijuana Pruning: Topping Vs Fimming
  • Defoliation – A High Risk Way To Increase Yield
  • How To Dramatically Boost Yields With Cannabis Lollipopping
• Weed growing tips
  • The Cannabis Plant Anatomy
  • How to preserve seeds
  • How Much Sunlight Do Outdoor Cannabis Plants Need To Grow?
  • How to Control and Prevent Stretching in Cannabis Plants
  • How And When To Transplant Your Cannabis Plants
  • My Cannabis Plants Are Growing Too Tall: What Should I Do?
  • Should You Worry About Purple Or Red Cannabis Stems?
  • What To Do When Your Indoor Cannabis Won’t Flower
  • How To Protect Your Cannabis Plants From Heat Stress
  • How To Tell If Your Female Cannabis Plant Has Been Pollinated
  • Growing Medical Marijuana
  • Bud Washing: How to Clean Your Weed

How To Properly Preserve Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds, with their tough outer shell, seem pretty hardy. And while nature has definitely designed them to hold up to a wide variety of conditions, cannabis seeds aren’t invincible. Rapid changes in temperature and high humidity, for example, can quickly ruin a batch of seeds. Luckily, caring for your seeds is simple. Keep reading to learn how.

Your Seeds Are Alive

Many people forget this, but it’s true—your cannabis seeds are living organisms. Before they germinate, however, they are in a state of rest (much like some animals when they hibernate). And like all living things, seeds can die. When storing your seeds, you’ll want to give them the optimal conditions to ensure they hold through until you’re ready to germinate and plant them.

Ideal Conditions for Cannabis Seeds

Cannabis seeds have four main enemies:
1. Humidity
2. Temperature
3. Light
4. Oxygen

Ideally, you want to store your seeds in a cool, dark, and dry place. Whenever possible, keep your seeds in their original packaging. At Royal Queen Seeds, we’ve specially designed our packaging to protect our seeds until you’re ready to plant them.

If your seeds get exposed to light or rapid changes in temperature, these conditions will trigger them to use up their nutrient stores before they ever see soil, meaning they won’t have the nutrients they need to germinate. High humidity, on the other hand, can trigger fungi to grow on your seeds.

Effects of Humidity on Cannabis Seeds

Humidity is easily one of the biggest threats to your seeds. Here is how different levels of humidity (% relative humidity) affect your cannabis seeds: 

Where and How to Store Your Cannabis Seeds

For short-term storage, a dark cupboard or drawer with stable temperatures is usually fine. Try to keep your seeds out of areas of your house that are susceptible to the natural temperature changes of your local environment.

If, for example, you live in an area with very warm daytime temperatures and cool nights, try to protect your seeds from these changes and don’t store them outside in a shed or garage.

For long-term storage, it’s best to keep your seeds with a desiccant, such as silica gel, in a sealed container inside the fridge. Remember that opening the door of your fridge can actually cause some pretty dramatic temperature shifts. If you happen to have a second fridge that gets used less often than the one in your kitchen, use that one to store your seeds.

Again, whenever possible, keep your seeds in their original packaging. If you do open a pack of seeds and have leftovers, transfer the extra seeds directly into a sealed airtight container.

Ziplock bags, for example, are great because you can remove all the air from them to create an almost vacuum-sealed container for your seeds. Once vacuum-sealed, put your bag inside a dark plastic bag or dark container to protect your seeds from your fridge light.

Dry fridges are the best to store seeds. The problem is when there is humidity in the fridge, since humidity is the worst enemy for seeds (worse than temperature, light, oxygen...). For this reason, it is better to store the seeds in No Frost fridges.

Can You Store Seeds in the Freezer?

Yes, cannabis seeds can be stored in the freezer. The lower the temperature, the slower they decline. However, it’s usually not necessary to freeze your seeds. Meet the conditions we outlined above, and you should be able to preserve your seeds for up to five years and still get a high germination rate.

Knowing Which Seeds to Plant and Which to Store

When you’re ready to germinate your seeds, inspect them and germinate any seeds with damage to the outer shell first. The outer shell of your seeds is designed to protect the volatile genetics inside. Seeds with cracks in the outer shell are a lot more vulnerable and shouldn’t be stored.

At Royal Queen Seeds, we take pride in our work and want to ensure every grower only has the best genetics in their garden. That means we inspect all of our seeds before packaging. If you notice any damage to your RQS seeds, get in touch with our customer service team immediately.

Tips for Germinating Old Cannabis Seeds

We’ve all found an odd seed somewhere at the bottom of an old drawer or cupboard. Here are a few tips on how to germinate old cannabis seeds:

• Pre-soaking with enriched carbonated water

Before germinating your old seeds, try soaking them in carbonated water enriched with fulvic acid, germination booster, hydrogen peroxide, or gibberellic acid. For best results, use room temperature water and soak your seeds for 12 hours in a dark place.

• Scar your seeds

Older seeds often have an extra tough outer shell. Gently scratching this shell with some sandpaper can help moisture and warmth enter your seed at the time of germination. Try gently scarring your old cannabis seeds just before soaking to help them sprout.

• Remove a seed’s ridge

The ridge is the slightly elevated side of your seed. Like other parts of the shell, this ridge can become extra tough over time. Removing it gently with a sharp Stanley blade can help your seed sprout.

• Slice open your seed

In a last attempt to germinate your seeds, creating a small cut in the seed’s shell may help. However, this is no miracle cure, and you’ll need to be careful to avoid damaging the inside of your seed. If you damage the embryo, the seed will never germinate.

Remember, some old seeds just won’t germinate no matter how much you try. Whenever possible, avoid buying more seeds than you plan to plant so as to avoid having any issues at the time of germination.