ruderalis indica

I think the most likely outcomes would be:

a) an f2 generation that is very similar to the f1 generation, with all the features expressed by the individual parent plants. or

b) an f2 generation with 50% of plants almost indistinguishable from the f1 generation, 25% photosensitive Indicas and 25% leaning more towards the original Ruderalis ancestor.

If seeds are made from a single selected male and female, the first option is more likely.

If all males are left in the garden to freely pollinate all females, the likelihood of the second option increases.

Even with uncontrolled pollination, the first option is still a strong possibility, as the f1 generation of Ruderalis Indica is usually very uniform, so the parents which contributed genes to the f2 seeds should have most features in common.

Another reason that the first option is more likely has to do with the breeding history of the Ruderalis strains.

Going back to the old Seed Bank catalogues (mid 1980s), there were four Ruderalis strains on offer. Of those four, the two that are still available today are Ruderalis Indica and Ruderalis Skunk.

Ruderalis Skunk is a more powerful hybrid - the original Ruderalis cultivar, bred with a powerful, dominant Skunk. The result is a much more potent strain that displays the auto-flowering tendency in 50% of plants grown from seed.

Duh, silly me. I didn't even look at your 'Location'.

You're right, of course, Sensi is unable to send to the US under any circumstances.

We see the advice about soaking/submerging seeds repeated quite a lot online and even in some grow-books.

While it's possible to start seeds in this way and have them succeed, Sensi Seeds always recommends against the practice of leaving them in water.

Seeds can absorb all the water they need to begin germinating from the moist towel method, and moist (not saturated) towels kept between two plates have almost no chance of denying the seeds access to air (which can kill them). With this in mind, it's best no to enclose the plates/moist tissue in an air-tight container or bag.

For plants at all stages - germinating seeds, larger plants and rooting clones - an aerated medium is very important for healthy root-growth.

For particularly old seeds, a soak may be beneficial, but you shouldn't receive old seeds if you're going to the trouble of buying them.

Also, whichever method you use to coax the first millimetres of root from the shell, once it's out, pre-germination has been achieved and the seeds can be sown.

If submerging seeds has caused them to germinate, they don't need to spend any time sitting in moist tissue. The root-tip could be spending this time establishing itself in the growing medium.
Equally, seeds that have been put directly into moist tissue can be planted in the medium soon after the first root-tip has emerged.

There are different schools of thought about how long the root-tip should be before planting. It's fine to plant seeds when just 1-3mm of root has emerged from the shell. In this case, it's usually better to sow seeds with the root-tip pointing upwards, as the initial root typically makes a 180 degree turn after emerging.

If the root is longer than about 10mm when planting, it's probably best to plant with the root pointing downwards.

One issue with waiting till roots are longer is that the emerging tip is the beginning of the main tap-root and as soon as it's a few millimetres long, it starts growing microscopic sub-roots all along its length.

If a germinated seed is kept in moist paper for too long, the initial root may have produced dozens or hundreds of barely-visible roots which have grown into the tissue.
When this happens, removing the seed from the tissue causes all these roots to break. Such damage probably won't kill the seedling, but it does cause significant stress at a time when the plant is particularly vulnerable.

I think that this potential for damage is the reason that the method of germination by submersion is recommended by some sources - there's nothing for the micro-roots to grow into (and submerged seeds certainly shouldn't stay in water long enough for the initial root to produce them).

But performing germination with moist medium and plates does not have to lead to this damage either, as long as seeds are removed from the tissue when their initial root is only a few millimetres long.

Two important considerations for growers who are still really keen on using the submersion method:
 - The water that the seeds are kept in should be in a dark place, as roots should not emerge into the light.
- Seeds should be removed from water as soon as a root tip is visible and should then be transferred directly to the growing medium.

Overall, Sensi does not recommend submersion. Moist medium kept between two plates provides all the factors necessary for optimum germination. If seeds do not germinate with this method, it can be assumed that they're not viable.

If seeds don’t germinate after submersion, the cause of their failure is less certain. It could be that they were simply non-viable or that the germination method led to the poor results.