how long are cannabis seeds viable - GEEKSFORCANNABIS.COM
Alright, so you have purchased cannabis seeds (if you haven’t yet then here is our top 10 seed bank suggestions), but don’t want to use them right away.
This is a bit iffy, because there is some variation when it comes to different strains of weed seeds. However, under normal conditions, most cannabis seeds will remain viable for germination for up to 5 years.
Now, this really does depend on the quality of the seeds to begin with. High quality cannabis seeds may stay viable for up to 6 years if stored properly, whereas low quality cannabis seeds, ones coming from a strain that is not so hardy, may only last for about 3 years before they are no longer viable for germination and growth.
There are a lot of factors that go into determining how long marijuana seeds stay viable for, mainly light, temperature, oxygen, and humidity, as well as of course the quality of the weed seeds to begin with.
We have heard of weed seeds staying good for up to 7 years, but this is super rare, and even 5 years is pushing it. Under normal storage conditions, it’s not recommended to keep marijuana seeds for more than 3 years at most.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that temperature will cause seed germination, and super high temperatures may cause your seeds to rot from the inside out.
Did you know that the life of stored weed seeds doubles in time for every 5 degree Celsius reduction in temperature? Yeah, temperature is by far one of the most important factors here.
Ideally, you want your cannabis seeds to be stored somewhere totally dark and not exposed to any light at all.
A humidity level of no more than 5% at most is recommended for both short term and long term marijuana seed storage. Yes, this can be hard to accomplish depending on where you live, but we will provide some tips for this later on today.
If you are going for long term storage, say more than a year, the best method is to vacuum seal the seeds using a vacuum sealer. This will remove all possible air, oxygen, and moisture from the equation.
The only thing you need to be careful of with this is that when you open the fridge or freezer, condensation will occur, especially near the front, so you do want to keep them at the rear. Even better is if you vacuum seal the seeds, then put them in the fridge or freezer.
Now, the freezer is a bit iffy, because depending on the seeds, it may damage them, in which case you might want to stick with a vacuum seal and fridge combination.
If you start the germination process, properly, and the seeds do not germinate in 7 days at the most, you know that they are no longer viable or worth your time.
If you store your weed seeds properly, they may stay viable for germination for up to 5 years, but there is really no guarantee of this. After about 1 year, you are taking a pretty big chance, so the sooner you use those cannabis seeds, the better.
A helpful guide on the 4 factors involved that determine how long you can keep can keep cannabis seeds and our awesome short and long term storage tips.
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