Seed Sadness

Not long ago I ordered a few beans from a site that advertises on our board. The service was prompt and efficient but there is a problem.

Unfortunately only one germinated. Normally this wouldnt be a big deal but I ordered just a single seed of two different strains. The one that did not succeed is the seed that made me purchase the entire order.

So here is my question, do the seed sites offer a replacement if I pay shipping or is it a "better luck next time" kind of thing as they are sold "for novelty only" and germination would violate this. Or would a different vocabulary get my point across without breaking rules.

Thanks for reading.

Sorry to break it to you, but yeah, it's a 'better luck next time' situation. If you read all the little details and such that most people skip over, most all sites say somewhere that the seeds are NOT for germination and that by ordering you acknowledge the fact that you are not guaranteed any results, and that the sale is for 'collectors' and those wishing to preserve genetic lines.

On a side note, if you are new to growing, you should expect that 1) you will lose some that don't germinate (this varies a great deal on strain and seed age. I've got some chronic going from seeds that are 8 years old and even being that old, about 90% germinated), 2) even after germination you may lose some to transplanting or physical damage from normal handling, and 3) you will also lose with those that turn out to be male. Of course all of those issues vary depending on circumstances, but I would say it's good form to try a 3 to 1 or 2 to 1 ratio of seed germination attempts to what you actually plan on bringing to full term.

Then on top of all of this, to get a really good harvest going, you should remove all the plants that are weak or stunted, saving only the tallest and strongest to be the producers. As an example, my recent grow started out with me trying to germinate 19 seeds. The seeds, like I said above, were pretty old, so I was surprised that most of those actually did sprout. After planting, I lost a few that just didn't make it up through the soil and one was broken when I poured the water too close. At this point I culled the heard to about 8, and then had to remove one more because it was male. All in all, I ended up with 3 that are thriving and female.

It's pretty much a pain in the butt to get started, but at this point, I've got some good strong 'mothers' and I can make unlimited clones as long as they stay healthy.

Hope this helps!

I'm assuming you ordered from Gorilla?

Officially we sell these seeds for souvenir & collection purposes because it's illegal to germinate seeds in the UK - and most other countries.

However, if a member of a sponsored forum is unhappy because their seeds were DAMAGED, customer service will often replace them.

If we had a PM feature here, I could be more helpful.

I'm going to rep you & leave you my email address - if you contact me, I'll be more than happy to try to work something out for you.