floaters vs sinkers

[puffnstuff]

seeds that is. I am germiating some seeds in a shot glass and I remember someone telling me years ago that it meant something as to how soon the seed would absorb enough water to sink. Anyone ever hear anything like this?
puff

 

[HippyInEngland]

Seeds that dont sink after 24 hours usually means the seed is dead and hollow, when I use the shot glass some sink and some float, I simply poke the seeds that floated under the water several times a day to see if they will sink, if they dont, I throw them away, they will not germinate.

eace:

 

[puffnstuff]

thanks hippy, I poke at them too...lol I just thought I remembered something about sexing them, probably ol'wives tale, but looking at them in the glass made me think of it.
puff

 

[bcnguiri]

very useful tip! Thanks alot

 

[akirahz]

Yesh, agreed - very g00d tip

 

[4u2sm0ke]

I have learned that is how to find if the seed is any good..

 

[Flyinghigh]

Seeds that dont sink after 24 hours usually means the seed is dead and hollow, when I use the shot glass some sink and some float, I simply poke the seeds that floated under the water several times a day to see if they will sink, if they dont, I throw them away, they will not germinate.

eace:

now that is Helpfull ! thanks Hippy

 

[BagSeed]

I think there is a myth that the floaters are male or something cause 2 of my friends who grow and don't even know each other have both said that to me...

 

[Albrecht]

Seeds that dont sink after 24 hours usually means the seed is dead and hollow, when I use the shot glass some sink and some float, I simply poke the seeds that floated under the water several times a day to see if they will sink, if they dont, I throw them away, they will not germinate.

eace:

Dude, you have it 180 degrees backwards. It's the bad seeds that will generally sink, and the good ones that will generally float. Damn, have you been throwing away good seeds all this time? Check out any grow book or any other resource. The good seeds will generally float, not sink!

 

[Flyinghigh]

Dude, you have it 180 degrees backwards. It's the bad seeds that will generally sink, and the good ones that will generally float. Damn, have you been throwing away good seeds all this time? Check out any grow book or any other resource. The good seeds will generally float, not sink!

Have u tried this method ?
Got the site to check out the grow book on seeds and how to Grem?

 

[Melissa]

Dude, you have it 180 degrees backwards. It's the bad seeds that will generally sink, and the good ones that will generally float. Damn, have you been throwing away good seeds all this time? Check out any grow book or any other resource. The good seeds will generally float, not sink!

my sunken seeds germinated and the floaters didnt ,,that all the proof i needed :48:

 

[HippyInEngland]

Dude, you have it 180 degrees backwards. It's the bad seeds that will generally sink, and the good ones that will generally float. Damn, have you been throwing away good seeds all this time? Check out any grow book or any other resource. The good seeds will generally float, not sink!

WOW

Ive been throwing all my good seeds away and all my dead seeds germinated.

 

[Albrecht]

Well I've had the exact opposite experience. I germinated via this method, left the glass of water in a dark closet, and all the seeds that sunk never ended up sprouting, while the seeds that floated did. Todd McCormick's "How to Grow Medical Marijuana" grow book says explicitly that you can expect bad seeds to sink, though with there being exceptions, you shouldn't be too quick to throw away seeds.

But if you just stop to think about it for a second, it makes no sense to think that a healthy seed would be more likely to sink than a bad seed. A seed that is especially dense because it's all shell and hasn't developed a healthy embryo is going to sink, or even a seed with an especially think shell, making it harder for the embryo to break out of the shell and therefor less likely to successfully germinate is more likely to sink then a healthy seed with a light shell as a fully formed less dense embryo. It's just common sense.

So while it's obviously not a 100% reliable method for testing the health of a seed, it is correct to expect a healthy seed to be more likely to float, not sink.

 

[Flyinghigh]

Ok I put some Reg. bag seeds into a cup of water and wanted to see if there any differents in the two floater and sinkers and as u can see in the first pix with the cup there 7 seeds that is floating and 2 seeds that sunk.
2 pix is where I seprate the seeds from the cup of water. Done on
7-27 evening.
3 pix u can see 2 sprout from the floater seeds group. Taken today 7-29 this morning.
I still have the rest of them on top of my DVR and to see if the rest will pop.
We will see in a day or so..

 

[Flyinghigh]

Ok I put some Reg. bag seeds into a cup of water and wanted to see if there any differents in the two floater and sinkers and as u can see in the first pix with the cup there 7 seeds that is floating and 2 seeds that sunk.
2 pix is where I seprate the seeds from the cup of water. Done on
7-27 evening.
3 pix u can see 2 sprout from the floater seeds group. Taken today 7-29 this morning.
I still have the rest of them on top of my DVR and to see if the rest will pop.
We will see in a day or so..

Where my Pix at????? I know I up loaded them..
Oh well I start a Journal with the Pix..

 

[slowmo77]

Well I've had the exact opposite experience. I germinated via this method, left the glass of water in a dark closet, and all the seeds that sunk never ended up sprouting, while the seeds that floated did. Todd McCormick's "How to Grow Medical Marijuana" grow book says explicitly that you can expect bad seeds to sink, though with there being exceptions, you shouldn't be too quick to throw away seeds.

But if you just stop to think about it for a second, it makes no sense to think that a healthy seed would be more likely to sink than a bad seed. A seed that is especially dense because it's all shell and hasn't developed a healthy embryo is going to sink, or even a seed with an especially think shell, making it harder for the embryo to break out of the shell and therefor less likely to successfully germinate is more likely to sink then a healthy seed with a light shell as a fully formed less dense embryo. It's just common sense.

So while it's obviously not a 100% reliable method for testing the health of a seed, it is correct to expect a healthy seed to be more likely to float, not sink.

i think this is crazy! i soak my seeds untill i see a tiny root start to come out. I've never had a seed that floated sprout or even crack open. when you drop the seeds in the water its like a ball. the bad ones full of air float, the good ones as they soak up water and get heavier they sink. thats common sense. if you germ the way your talkin about i bet you get a low germination rate.jmo

 

[puffnstuff]

wow, thanks for all the responses. I didnt want to start a war here. I was just looking at my seeds and wondering. I started 21 seeds in my cup. 3 sank instantly, the others floated. after 1 day all but 1 had sunk. next day or so all but one had popped. I planted all 21 even the one that didn't crack. none have broke the surface yet, we'll see if they alll come up. I marked the pot with the un-cracked seed to see if it comes to life. these are all in my organic mazar thread, just incase you want to follow them.
puff

 

[Albrecht]

i think this is crazy! i soak my seeds untill i see a tiny root start to come out. I've never had a seed that floated sprout or even crack open. when you drop the seeds in the water its like a ball. the bad ones full of air float, the good ones as they soak up water and get heavier they sink. thats common sense. if you germ the way your talkin about i bet you get a low germination rate.jmo

Google Hydrochory. Seeds are designed evolutionarily to float so that they can be carried to new locations by rivers and streams. They're not designed to sink, so that right after they fall off the tree they can end up buried in the bottom of a river bed! That, my friend, is common sense. But it seems to me that what we've found out here is that floating vs sinking is not a reliable way of testing whether a marijuana seed is good or bad, and that was the question this thread posed.

 

[Hick]

Dude, you have it 180 degrees backwards. It's the bad seeds that will generally sink, and the good ones that will generally float. Damn, have you been throwing away good seeds all this time? Check out any grow book or any other resource. The good seeds will generally float, not sink!

.. Well.. "SOMEBODY" has it bass akward.. but I think it is you Albrecht... Hollow, malformed or immature seeds will hold air and consequently "float". If any are bad, it would be those. Not the ripe "full" mature seeds containing a plant embryo, that are heavy enough to sink.
Sorry, but that goes against anything I have ever heard or witnessed.

 

[Albrecht]

.. Well.. "SOMEBODY" has it bass akward.. but I think it is you Albrecht... Hollow, malformed or immature seeds will hold air and consequently "float". If any are bad, it would be those. Not the ripe "full" mature seeds containing a plant embryo, that are heavy enough to sink.
Sorry, but that goes against anything I have ever heard or witnessed.

Google Hydrochory. Seeds are designed evolutionarily to float so that they can be carried to new locations by rivers and streams. They're not designed to sink, so that right after they fall off the tree they can end up buried in the bottom of a river bed! That, my friend, is common sense. But it seems to me that what we've found out here is that floating vs sinking is not a reliable way of testing whether a marijuana seed is good or bad, and that was the question this thread posed.

And it's not about hollow verses solid, it's about dense verses less dense. A healthy embryo is going to be less dense than a seed that is all shell, because it never developed. But it's just funny to me that people would think it makes more sense to think that seeds should sink. I mean, the whole point of a seed is for a plant to disperse its seed to as large an area as possible. And so the moment it hits water, it makes sense to people that it should sink to the bottom of the body of water? lulz

But hey, that one pretty professional grow book I have and my own experience, and just a cursory knowledge of how seeds function in the environment, tell me one thing, but a couple people's experiences here tell me another. So what I've learned is to not pay attention to whether the seeds are floating or sinking the next time I germinate MJ seeds. But I love this method for germinating seeds, so easy! so I'll be sticking with it regardless.