Should you ‘cold stratify’ landrace seeds?

Where legal, germinating landrace seeds is easy:

(1) Presoak seeds in 3% peroxide for at least 3 hours.

(2) Place seeds in moist, fresh, and sterile Seed Compost.

(3) Ensure the conditions are very warm (+25 °C).

(4) Ensure the area has excellent ventilation.

Everything about this process is aimed at preventing Damping Off pathogens from killing your seeds.

Caused by various types of fungus and fungus-like organisms, Damping Off kills seedlings post- and pre-emergence. Cannabis is very susceptible. Crucially, Damping Off pathogens thrive in humid, stagnant, and cool conditions.

The purpose of peroxide is to sterilize the outside and inside of seeds. Peroxide also stimulates seeds to germinate.

Never use humidity domes. Definitely don’t use soggy paper towels in plastic bags either.

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On forums, you will see advice that landrace seeds should be ‘cold stratified’ to encourage germination. This is based on the widespread misunderstanding that landraces are wild.

To be clear, vernalization or cold stratification is helpful for germinating feral / wild-type cannabis from northern latitudes such as Kazakhstan.

But that’s feral cannabis, not true landraces:

The term landrace (land race) refers to populations of domesticated plants that were selected over many generations by farmers in a region.’ A literal modern translation of the German word ‘Landrasse’ is not ‘landrace’ but ‘country-breed’.

Contrary to the myths about cannabis in high altitude regions such as the Hindu Kush or Himalaya, there’s no cultivation for charas production that utilizes feral seed, and never has been.

Seeds of charas landraces show clear domestication syndrome. They’re oil-rich and large – often very large in regions such as the Hindu Kush and Himalaya – and they germinate quickly and evenly.

Sowing season in a traditional cultivation zone such as Chitral or Kumaon is around May or June, when midday temperatures in the mountains can reach up to 30 °C to 35 °C.

Further north, in Afghan centres such as Balkh, temperatures in June climb to around 40 °C.

As for the life of landrace seed in the mountains, after harvest during autumn or early winter, seed from landraces is carefully dried over a week or two, then bagged and stored indoors. Seeds do not sit out in the fields over winter.

In other words, cold stratifying or vernalizing landrace seeds is based on false assumptions. Unless you’re working with feral seeds, these techniques are counterproductive. They do not emulate the sowing conditions of charas landraces at all.

The seeds shown above are of a Lao ganja landrace, for more of which see the section named Southeast Asia.