HOW TO SEE BAD WEED SEEDS

In this article you will learn how to see bad weed seeds.

A good plant is primarily a result of a good seed. You can't see a bad seed and expect to harvest a good plant. Even though other factors such as climate, light, and environment also influence the quality of seed, you should not overlook the place of sowing a top-quality seed because it serves as the foundation for a good harvest and sets you on the right path.

Choosing a good seed from the start can help save you from a lot of stress, time wastage, and resources as you proceed. Cannabis growers that fall victim to a poor quality seed often spend much of their resources on it, and at the end of the day, it fails to germinate or produce a lesser amount of plants than expected.

This leads to the question, "How do I choose a quality seed, and how do I know if a cannabis seed is bad?" But there's no reason to worry, as we will discuss this fully in this article. You'll learn what a bad seed is, how you can identify a bad seed by its physical attributes, and the practical test you can do to see if a seed will sprout or not.

WHAT IS A BAD SEED, AND WHAT MAKES IT BAD?

The term "Bad seed" is often used to refer to seeds that fail to germinate or meet the expectation of the grower. Such seeds cause a whole lot of headaches to the grower, and in the end, it wastes the effort and resources spent on it. In most cases, a bad seed can also be called a dud seed, a seed that doesn't have the capacity to germinate.

A dud seed is not in any way dangerous, but obviously, it's very irritating and frustrating. Besides a dud seed, another example of a bad seed is a male cannabis plant. There's no way to determine whether a regular seed is male or female. When male seeds germinate and mature, they pollinate the females and destroy the precious THC content of the plant.

You will do well to avoid having male seeds in your garden. But no need to worry as all the seeds that come in a feminized bunch are all females except those you purchase from an unreliable grower.

HOW TO IDENTIFY IF A CANNABIS SEED IS GOOD OR BAD

The good news is that you don't have to wait till the germination stage before you can identify a quality seed. You can do so at the beginning, even with just a look. How? The cannabis seed has some noticeable physical traits that speak about its quality, including shape, size, and color.

Due to the different strains, cannabis plants don't have the same physical characteristics. Most modern cannabis plants are poly-hybrids with diverse genetic variations, which causes them to show special traits based on their genetic lineage. In his best interest, the breeder selects the needed and suitable characteristics of the parent strain and passes them down to the progeny. This action forms a new hybrid variation with different physical traits.

Even though the variations bring a change to the physical properties, there are still certain attributes you can observe from the seed to determine the quality, and these are;

A lively brown coloration

You can expect the color of any healthy seed to be brown, grey, or black with dark spots. Color change occurs mainly due to genetic variation, and it's no doubt that the environment also contributes significantly to it. The seed can be uniform in color or exhibit turtle shell patterns and tiger stripes with several dark hues. If you find a seed with these characteristics, then you're on the right path toward choosing a good seed.

After being placed for several months, some seeds experience a color change. A color you'll certainly want to avoid in seeds is green or white, as it indicates that the cannabis seed is yet to be mature and harvested early. The humidity, lightning, and oxidation cause a minor change in appearance.

This means that the seed lacks the required time needed for it to develop fully, putting it at a higher risk of not germinating. Furthermore, low-quality seeds sometimes possess a full appearance.

Preferably large with a teardrop shape

Judging the quality of a cannabis seed based on its size and shape can be difficult. This is because a healthy seed can come in small and large sizes. Some cultivators are devoted to producing small and compact-sized seeds, which is no problem as long as they possess other characteristics of good seeds, such as brown coloration and young age.

Nevertheless, there's a common belief that a healthy cannabis seed tends to be larger when fully developed. A large seed shape can result from a significant amount of magnesium, calcium, or genetic makeup. However, just because a seed is large does not mean it will automatically germinate.

Regarding shape, it's safe to say that all good quality seeds always have a teardrop shape with a tapered end at one side and a round end on the other. When seeds lack this peculiar shape, it's often due to a genetic mishap which is not a good indication. Seeds that are way too flat and lack a particular shape are at a higher risk of not germinating at all or not meeting the grower's expectations.

Generally, it's believed that the larger and rounder the seed is, the more potential it has to germinate into a healthy plant. The thick shell seeds often bother growers, but there's no cause for concern; the shell eventually comes down when in contact with water.

Go for seeds with shiny and waxy coating

After carefully looking at the color, size, and shape, and you are not yet satisfied, you can also observe the shell of the seed. Generally, good seeds are known for having a shiny shell as though it was polished with wax by growers. In contrast, an unhealthy seed looks dull and matte in appearance. Always choose a shiny seed over a dull-looking one, as the former has a higher chance of germinating.

Find out the age of the cannabis seed

Knowing the age of the cannabis seed can help you choose a top-quality seed. Seeds that are more than a year old have a higher germination rate and are ideal for planting if you want a bountiful harvest. Furthermore, if you wish to preserve your seeds before planting, younger seeds maintain their viability over some time than old seeds.

Cannabis growers often tend to prolong the longevity of the seed by storing it in a refrigerator. However, the older the seeds are, the less the results they offer. Finding out the age of a cannabis seed can seem like a difficult task, especially when you're not the one that cultivated it. However, there's a way for you to do that.

You have to use your hand as an indicator to get a good feel of the cannabis seed. Put the seed between your thumb and index finger, apply light pressure to squeeze it, and be careful not to apply much pressure. A young and healthy seed won't crack under pressure; rather, it will remain firm. An old seed will give in to the pressure and experience a crack because of its lower nutritional and moisture content. When you observe a dent or crack on the seed, it clearly indicates that the seed is of low quality.

HOW TO FIND TOP-QUALITY CANNABIS SEED

If you're keen on finding good quality seed, you can't afford not paying close attention to the seed source. You'll agree that a seed from a reputable seed bank would be of higher quality than one pulled out of a bag of weed. This is because the time, effort, and resources the professional seed banks put into producing good quality seeds and their numerous years of experience make them trustworthy.

It's safe to say that a seed obtained from a professional seed bank will germinate. To support this, most seed banks always guarantee that a huge percentage (80%) of the seed they bought will sprout.

Whereas, if you purchase cannabis seed from a new seed bank or dealer, you stand at a higher risk of buying a low-quality seed. Not that new seed banks are not worthy of your trust, but always look at their customer reviews and how much data they make public concerning each strain. Also, it would be best if you avoided buying seeds found in a bud or used a seed found within your flowers. The reason is that there's a higher probability that the environment they grew in is not the most suitable for seeds. Much more, finding a seed in a bud is not a good indication of high-quality genetics. If you also purchase it from a new dealer, you'll have no idea how long the seed has been preserved. It's better to buy from professional seed banks as it puts you on the safer side.

HOW TO TEST YOUR CANNABIS SEED FOR GOOD QUALITY.

There is some practical test you can carry out to determine the quality of the seed. The first is to check the physical appearance or some attributes fully discussed in this article. Here's a quick recap:

• Allow light to illuminate the cannabis seed to see if it has a waxy and shiny surface.
• Apply light pressure to test if the seed breaks or not.
• Observe the color and pick seeds with high brown coloration.
• Avoid a seed with no particular shape and buy one with a teardrop shape.

Apart from the physical appearance, there are some tests you can carry out to see if the seed will sprout or not. These are;

The floating test 

This test involves using water and a container such as a glass or a cup to see if the seed will stay afloat or sink below into the water. Fill up your preferred container with water and drop the cannabis seed inside; observe it for some hours, probably one or two, to see if it floats or not. Depending on the results, you can separate healthy seeds from low-grade ones.

The seeds that sink are the healthy ones with a very high percentage of sprouting, while the ones that float are considered unhealthy. When the test is done, the seed will have absorbed a lot of water; leaving it in that state to dry will definitely cause harm to the seed, so you're left with no choice but to germinate the seed right away.

The floating test is a cost-effective method of checking the quality of the seed. It doesn't require much effort and is also useful for testing several seeds at once. The only disadvantage is that it leaves the growers with no choice but to plant the seed after it's done, or else the seeds will go bad due to water intake.

The Deciding test: Germination

What better way of finding out if a seed will sprout or not than actually planting it? If you purchase a huge number of seeds, especially for a commercial purpose, then you can't afford to be testing the quality of each of the seeds one by one. The best thing in this scenario is to plant and see if it'll germinate or not. You can go about it in an old-fashioned way by planting the seed into the ground and checking if it sprouts or not.

You can also use a famous method called paper towel. Mix a paper towel with water but ensure it's not soaking wet, then put it on a kitchen plate and keep the seeds on top of it. Cover the whole setup with another plate in an upside-down position. This will create a dark, warm and moist environment that the seed needs to germinate. Give it a day and come back to check on it; if it sprouts, you'll see a white tap root coming out of the seed. Then you can proceed to transplant the seed into a pot using a pair of tweezers; you should be careful while carrying that out as the taproot is extremely fragile and can break easily.

CONCLUSION

If you're a grower and want a bountiful harvest, you must leave out a considerable amount of time to find good seeds that will germinate. Some dud seeds won't sprout even after spending resources, effort, and time to grow them. You don't necessarily need to wait till germination before you identify those seeds. You can know them by their physical attributes, such as color, shape, and size.

At the same time, the best way to identify the bad seeds, especially if they are many, is to plant them and observe if it germinates or not. Also, you can carry out a floating test, this is a cheap method of testing the quality of seed, and it requires little effort. The seeds that sink are regarded as healthy, while those that float are bad. Taking time to find a top-quality seed is a prerequisite to a great yield of plants, and it saves you from a lot of headaches.