# floaters vs sinkers



## puffnstuff (Jul 25, 2008)

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


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## HippyInEngland (Jul 25, 2008)

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:


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## puffnstuff (Jul 25, 2008)

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


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## bcnguiri (Jul 25, 2008)

very useful tip! Thanks alot


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## akirahz (Jul 25, 2008)

Yesh, agreed - very g00d tip


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## 4u2sm0ke (Jul 25, 2008)

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


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## Flyinghigh (Jul 25, 2008)

HippyInEngland said:
			
		

> 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


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## BagSeed (Jul 25, 2008)

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...


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## Albrecht (Jul 25, 2008)

HippyInEngland said:
			
		

> 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*!


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## Flyinghigh (Jul 25, 2008)

Albrecht said:
			
		

> 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?


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## Melissa (Jul 25, 2008)

Albrecht said:
			
		

> 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:


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## HippyInEngland (Jul 25, 2008)

Albrecht said:
			
		

> 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.


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## Albrecht (Jul 25, 2008)

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.


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## Flyinghigh (Jul 29, 2008)

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..


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## Flyinghigh (Jul 30, 2008)

Flyinghigh said:
			
		

> 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.
> ...


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


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## slowmo77 (Jul 30, 2008)

Albrecht said:
			
		

> 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


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## puffnstuff (Jul 30, 2008)

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


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## Albrecht (Jul 30, 2008)

slowmo77 said:
			
		

> 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.


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## Hick (Jul 30, 2008)

Albrecht said:
			
		

> 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.


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## Albrecht (Jul 30, 2008)

Hick said:
			
		

> .. 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 said:
			
		

> 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.


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## puffnstuff (Jul 30, 2008)

just got off the phone with mother nature, she say's you are all right. she say's some sink and some float so that the can sink in puddles and float down rivers a ways before sinking and some never sink so they can float to the ocean and spread out better but still grow. 
puff


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## SativaWeed (Jul 30, 2008)

A seed fresh out of the pod is wet, heavy and will sink unless it's a coconut, lol. Dry seeds will float untill enough moisture is absorbed, of course. A seed with a healthy embryo should be heavy or "full" and SHOULD SINK. If not immediatly then very shortly after submersion when the outer carapis has absorbed an adequit amount of h2o. No, not all seeds are meant to float like free range chickens to whatever fate they fall into, some sink because it's natural since they usually grow ON SLOPES or away from direct water sources. Not everything grows next to a body of water. I would suspect a seed that never sinks to the bottom to be malformed with a little, unhealthy embryo or dead with no moisture in it at all. Think of the big healthy plants that have gone down the toilet only to have runts grown in thier stead!!:holysheep:


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## slowmo77 (Jul 30, 2008)

ya i agree with sativaweed. lots of wasted seeds if you flush the sinkers. if it works for anyone then do it but its never worked that way for me.


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## Hick (Jul 31, 2008)

..and I think Sat' probably has the best explanation/reasoning yet.  I admittedly didn't google 'hydrochory. I'm sure that it supports your hypothesis Albrecht, and I'm sure you aren't purposely attempting to mislead anyone. My post was strictly from past experiences. 
  "I".. have never, that I recall, saw a floating seed, sprout a tap root. I have however, seen a good many sprouted that were lieing at the bottom of a glass full of water.  I also have saw seeds that sank never germinate. 
Thus, the conclusion, that sinking or floating is NOT a reliable method of determining viability ..


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## Runbyhemp (Jul 31, 2008)

> Thus, the conclusion, that sinking or floating is NOT a reliable method of determining viability ..



Same principle applies to testing for witches


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## Flyinghigh (Jul 31, 2008)

Ok I did the Floater vs sinker and this is what I found.
I place 9 seeds in water and waited 5 mins and pushed down the seeds and only 2 sinked and 7 floated as u can see in the 1 Pix. started on the Sat. 26.
2 Pix u can see I seperated them..
3 pix  u can see only 2 floater seeds has popped and that was on the 27 the next day..
The rest didn't pop and they set for Grem for 4 days and finely trash can them so those 2 that sunk were bad seed that maybe  because they filled with water..


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## christopherbrandl30 (Feb 13, 2022)

Melissa said:


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


Good seeds float


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## WeedHopper (Feb 13, 2022)

Never used that method. I plant my seeds in soil and wait. Almost always see them pop.
Use to use the paper towel method but haven't in along time. Good ole mother nature hardly ever fails me.


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## pute (Mar 4, 2022)

christopherbrandl30 said:


> Good seeds float


Disagree.  I prep seeds by putting them in water plus hydrogen peroxide....leave them a day and the best and strongest seeds sink.


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 4, 2022)

For a sec I thought we were talking something else 
Floaters and sinkers LOL


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 4, 2022)

ROSTERMAN said:


> For a sec I thought we were talking something else
> Floaters and sinkers LOL


Fishing season soon bro


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## boo (Mar 4, 2022)

it's bedtime roster, get your beer and hit the sack brother...


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## bigsur51 (Mar 4, 2022)

christopherbrandl30 said:


> Good seeds float



what ‘ chu smokin‘ Amigo?


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 5, 2022)

Had a floater this morning


boo said:


> it's bedtime roster, get your beer and hit the sack brother...


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## WeedHopper (Mar 5, 2022)

Floating seeds are not good from my understanding. If they don't take in the water how will they germinate. Floating seeds mean they are not absorbing water.


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 5, 2022)

WeedHopper said:


> Floating seeds are not good from my understanding. If they don't take in the water how will they germinate. Floating seeds mean they are not absorbing water.


Not always true , I have had floaters grow
A floater is usually a seed that the outer skin has not allowed the water to pernitrate the seeds husk and become heavy with water.
If you plant it it may take more time to soak up and swell and then pop.
Sometimes Yep
Its a Dude


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## WeedHopper (Mar 5, 2022)

I'm just going by logic. I have never used that method. I plant my seeds in soil or Jiffy Pots.
I let mother nature do her thing. But if I was I would scuff them first then put them in the glass of water.


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## bigsur51 (Mar 5, 2022)

I’ve never had any luck with floaters

most of the floaters I’ve seen can be crushed with my fingers because they are practically hollow inside


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## bigsur51 (Mar 5, 2022)

For the record , we use the soaking method and then in paper towels inside a baggie and then in a brown grocery sack for darkness and then a heating mat for germination


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 5, 2022)




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## pute (Mar 5, 2022)

bigsur51 said:


> For the record , we use the soaking method and then in paper towels inside a baggie and then in a brown grocery sack for darkness and then a heating mat for germination


Well now, if it is on the record it must be true.  I use a Dixie cup RO water and a few drops of hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide kills all pathogens.


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## bigsur51 (Mar 5, 2022)

pute said:


> Well now, if it is on the record it must be true.  I use a Dixie cup RO water and a few drops of hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide kills all pathogens.




we use Everclear or butane to kill our pathogens


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## pute (Mar 5, 2022)

bigsur51 said:


> we use Everclear or butane to kill our pathogens


So that is what happened to Swede


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 5, 2022)

pute said:


> So that is what happened to Swede


Yep He has not mention her in a while 
Maybe she dumped his butt, No wonder he has been so nasty lately


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 5, 2022)

bigsur51 said:


> how did you make the jump from killing pathogens to Swede?
> 
> 
> purdy huh
> ...


I have an aging program lets see 
How many yrs ago was this taking so I can program it in?


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## bigsur51 (Mar 5, 2022)

ROSTERMAN said:


> Yep He has not mention her in a while
> Maybe she dumped his butt, No wonder he has been so nasty lately



that dam tooth just about got me for sure


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## ROSTERMAN (Mar 5, 2022)




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## christopherbrandl30 (Apr 9, 2022)

pute said:


> Disagree.  I prep seeds by putting them in water plus hydrogen peroxide....leave them a day and the best and strongest seeds sink.


I didn't use hydrogen peroxide but they been growing for a whole and they look really good to me. Next time I'm going to do try hydrogen peroxide. They were seeds from a decent bank gareenteed. Whatever that means


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## CrashMagnet (Apr 9, 2022)

I just put them under my tongue. If they don't sprout in 24 hours, I swallow them.


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