ive kept mine in bags or med bottles in a dark cool place for over the last year and most of them have sprouted fine just recently

FYI most canna seeds will germinate after a couple of years, without using any special techniques for storage e.g. freezing.

Sorry DB, but that's really not true.

I'm sure it's slightly different in plants than in humans, but in the end DNA is DNA, and cell division is cell division.

Cells can only divide a certain number of times before they simply stop, and DNA can only replicate itself a certain number of times within a cell before it begins to lose genetic coding (Each time DNA replicates a small ammount degrades)

At least that's what I've been made to believe, so a mother kept past her natural life expectancy will (slowly) begin to degrade (maybe not in potency, maybe not in vigour, at least not immediatly, but small things do change over time)

I have to agree with Dark.
I have experienced the degredation of genetics. or rather vigor, over time.
If ya cut off a chic for years to make asexual babies, ...I don't understand why it happens, but it does.
I grew a seed about four years ago. Was so Fucking better than what I expected that I regen/reveg(whatevs) and started cloning her. Eventually I needed a new mom and so cloned one. This pattern repeated 2 more times over 4 years and I've gotta say, that my grow environment has only gotten better and my original genetics(per this story), just aren't what they used to be.
She still has the super affect, but doesn't grow as...well, vigorusly.

My opinion.

No problem disagreeing with my comment; as long as I can re-comment

Genetic drift or mutation occurs in every living cell. Given enough time, e.g. thousands of years, phenotypical mutations can become evident, assuming the changes are beneficial to the organism. Evolution has shown that most (if not all) changes are in response to drastic environmental changes, including prey/carnivore developments. These modifications take place over many generations, and through sexual reproduction. Offspring may be ever-so-slightly different than their parents.

Now, consider a mother plant. Clone her till the cows come home. Genetically the clones will be identical to both the mother and each other. This is true whether we are 'copying' cannabis or cats. Don't forget that a clone is just that, an exact copy of the original. This is particularly clear when talking about plants, as no surrogates are needed to 'grow' a cutting, i.e. a cloned animal requires a donor egg.

I hope what I just scribbled makes some sense. What do you guys think ?

I totally get what yer saying Doobie. And I don't disagree with the exact copy, identical moms/clones...
But I still say that (in my experience)an annual that is kept alive far longer than is its normal life-span, again IME, starts to lose vigor. I agree and I know the clones are exact duplicates and should remain as vigorous but after years they seem to slow down quite a bit...

Loss of vigour probably stems (no pun intended!) from the mother itself getting old, and is not a genetic trait changing over time.

^ this

I just want to share some knowledge mwmba was kind enough to drop on me when we we're dicussing the same topic a couple months ago:


Personally, after 15 years it's time for some variation. I have no reason to keep a mother that long. The average lifespan for my mothers is nine months.

Having said that, I'm actually in the process of converting my stock to one liter bonsai . I like the idea of being able to keep several different strains on hand at one time.

FVic, I would love to see some pics of the bonzais. How far along are you in the conversion ? Would you be able to briefly outline how you do this ? I'm very interested, if only for the many experiments I could set up

http://s1173.photobucket.com/albums/r600/ForbiddenSeeds/?action=view&current=1216701b.jpg

here on display but i keep them in the fridge inside plastic bottles.

SSB