Hi, Newbie here. We are moving after 32 years and leaving our beloved tree. Want to sprout some seeds to take some with us. Need info on how to sprout. The keys are at there peak around fathers day and further into the summer pests will get to them all. I'm in Sunnyvale, CA, USA. Hoping for some good advice. TIA Norm
Good morning Norman and welcome to the maples forum. First of all your samaras are not ripe until they turn brown. So you will need to place as many as you can in a seed tray full of compost with chicken wire over the top to stop pests getting to them. Then leave them in the garden until October. Basically you are replicating how they would lay after dropping on the ground to ripen. Then in October place in a bag of moist compost in a bag in your refrigerator until early Spring, when you can cut off the wings and sow in a good free draining seed compost. You will see which are viable by how much the seed has swollen. This is how I sort out what to sow. A few months later you will then see the signs of the coteledon leaves appear. It is at this point I pot mine up into individual small 9cm pots. Then leave them in a sheltered position and water only when necessary. Do not over water. In two years you will then have a tree or two or more to chose for your garden. But do realise that any seedlings are 'unlikely' to be a perfect clone of your present tree in your garden. For that to happen I would consider air layering if you have a few months before you move house. There are some excellent tutorials on this on YouTube, so I won't go into it here atm. Hope thats of help. D
Your tree looks like the plain species of Acer palmatum, a beautiful tree. If it's over 32 years old, it must have hundreds of seeds. Most of them can sprout. There are different "techniques", so with all the seeds you will have, you can try all of them. A : collecting seeds A-1 : seeds can be collected when the wings of the samaras turn brown and the seed itself is still green : let them dry for a weeks or 10 days A-2 : seeds can be collected after leaf-fall, when they're all brown. Not sure these are the best ones, I prefer A-1 B : stratifying seeds B-1 : artificially : in the fridge, 3-5 degrees celsius for 3-4 months B-2 : naturally : in grow boxes of containers left outside, the sucession of cold/warm weather being the natural way of such seeds to germinate. I think that from the photos you've posted, you can have hundreds of seeds, so try different options.
On top of what the other guys have said, which is all good, the seeds will be ready to harvest when they come away easily when pulled from the tree. In the UK this would be around September to October time, not sure how the different climate in CA would affect this - they might possibly be ready earlier?
Thank you all for such wonderful replies. This tree has two "drops" and always has. The 1st in April/May. They usually are smaller and less abundant. When that drop is over that's when the big fruit comes on. The second drop is happening now late June. Father's day seems to be when they are heaviest on the tree. When they drop they get attacked and something bores into them and destroys the seed. I'm thinking of suspending a tarp to catch the seeds as they fall and keep them off the ground. This is a large tree and probably has thousands of seeds. They will all drop way before October. They never last till after the leaves are gone. When I get some good light I'll post a picture.
A beautiful tree Norman and I'm sure you will get plenty of viable seeds to get another going. Do sow plenty, then take your pick at which is the closest to your old tree to bring on. Take lots of photos ( of your old tree) so that you can get a very close match. D
