I finally received the seeds from the Maple Society. I want to thank all those who collected, sorted them, put them in paper bags and posted them : thank you very much for the time and efforts spent. Now it's up to me to find the best way to make the best of this seeds galore ;-) PS: I had put some of my own seeds from A. palmatum palmatum directly in a ziplock bag that I put in the fridge on Dec. 5th after having soaked them overnight in water, and two days ago, some of them were already sprouting. Bad photo, but you can see some of the 10 or so that showed a white root. I planted them in individual pots and I keep them in the coolest room I have that gets some light.
Acer heldreichii seeds i started stratification on Dec 15 has already started germinating like crazy for me.
I got them rather late (January), and didn't stratify them right away : so far, nothing. I have seeds that I collected in Oct-Nov and many of them (mostly A. palmatum) have begun to sprout, but none of the ones from the seed exchange here so far. but I'm very happy to see that some from last year that sprouted are about to leaf out, esp. Acer pentaphyllum and Acer oliverianum ssp. formosanum among others. I'm learning to be patient. Never too late to learn ;-)
Nice. I collected seeds from A. oliverianum this past fall. I'm hoping some will germinate this spring. These germinating A. heldreichii, A. buergerianum, A. p. Ruyren, A. monspessulanum, A. p. Sango kaku, A. P. Osakazuki, A. saccharum ssp. Floridanum, and A. Palmatum ssp. palmatum. I'm excited about this coming spring.
Cool. Among others I have some A. saccharum in the fridge, I hope some will germinate. But it's not for me. The tree and the leaves are too big for me. I have a friend who's been to Québec, he seems to love the place and has nice memories of it, and from I heard, he has a lot of land in his new place. So I thought if I gave him an "érable à sucre", maybe in a couple of decades we can have --- what do they call it ? You know, hot maple sap on a snow covered table ?... The kind of French phrase almost no French person knows "in the hexagon" (Continental France) because it's totally out of our environment.
Lol. Yes sir "maple syrup". It a wonderful tasting thing. Thanks to the wonderful specie to provide. The ssp floridanum had medium to small leave on it. I collected a few to watch and pray that they inherite the small leaf trait. Im looking to try a few as bonsai.
LoverofMaples, is there any way you could show me your setup, i.e. lights and covering where you are sprouting your seeds? It looks simple but obviously works, and I could certainly use a simple but effective setup myself right now. Thanks, Kyle
Hi Kyle, I don't mind at all. I'll take a few pics for you and it is a pretty simple setup. I used a three tier shelve with 4ft led shop lights (2 lights per tier). Each fixture height can be adjusted with chain links.
Awesome. Thanks so much. Are the lights T5’s? Also, do you keep up with temperature or just kinda play it by ear (eye)?
They aren't T5s. They are just fluorescent led lights. Only 45 watts per fixture. I stop running my grow lights 2 yrs ago due to the crazy amount of power usage. I do use mats for bottom heat but the room temp is in the mid 50s and it's not regulated. I don't worry about the maples. I have maple leafing out in the @ 37 degrees. The lights and heat mats are on a 12 hr timer. Correction, I use a 4 tier shelf unit. But im only using the top right now. All shelves will be used soon due to the amount of seeds i have germinating. I hope the pics help. Derek
Okay that’s what I thought. Thanks so much. Another quick question, what media are you using in those cells? It obviously works well.
Nothing here yet, though sycamores are sprouting in the lawn... A. pentaphyllum leafing out now?? That's very strange, it's usually one of the very last to leaf out, in mid-June. But hey, if you get any spare sugar maples I'd love to take one off your hands! :) Acer oliverianum ssp. formosanum has once again been named A. serrulatum. So we can try and remember to go back to that. I usually can't so I had to look it up again. Anyway also leafing out here, which is not a happy thing on Feb 20. I just put A. buergerianum ssp formosanum inside for the night as there may be a light frost coming, and it's in leaf already. @LoverOfMaples I've been trying to get hold of ssp. floridanum for a few years now. Did you collect them in Florida? -E
@kgeezy20 I use my standard bonsai mix (composted pine bark chips, lava rock, perlite, tiny river rock, and turface). @emery I collected them from the Arnold. Should we arrange something for this fall?
Yes. The further away the light the legger the seeding. So it all depends on what your growing and how fast it grows. I start close and as the plant grow, I move the light back. This is a quick summary of mine. Check on YouTube about 'starting seeds indoors', something like that for more detail info.
Now that sounds like a good plan! In truth I think there's a very good chance they'll turn out to be hybrids with regular Sugar Maple, coming from the Arnold. I know it's very hard to get un-hybridized Black Maple (again called A. nigrum, formally A. saccharum ssp nigrum) and I haven't yet succeeded, so I wouldn't be surprised if ssp floridanum is the same. But I would love to try, thanks!! -E
@emery I was thinking the same but im keeping my fingers crossed. I will monitor them closely for a few years, hopefully a few will turn out similar to the parent. The leaf size and height really caught my attention. I'm also guessing the tree were fairly young.
