Hi everyone. I rarely post, but am almost always lurking around reading all the great stuff on this forum. I'm a relatively new Acer addict, only for a little over a year has my addiction been present ;). I've grown a few palmatum from seed, but I was hoping those of you who have lots of experience growing Acer's from seed would detail your usual methods. I enjoy reading all the different techniques and using tidbits from each one to develop a method that best suits me. Thanks in advance! Kyle
Hi Kyle, Sorry you didn't get any replies, like you I am in the same boat and was looking for more information in sowing Acer seeds.........I haven't grown any from seed and am located in south east england, I have read that the seeds need to be first socked in warm to hot water for 24 hours, and then put them in a bag with sand and peat, and then place them in the fridge for about 3 months then plant them in out in some soil / compost.....I guess the timing has to be about right, I was looking at buying some Purple Ghost seeds but I think I am too late and should have started the process in about 3 months back around September time.....good luck in the propagation of your JM seeds.
Hi guys,I`d like to share my 4 years experience of sowing seeds. I have tried many different ways, but what works for me best is after collecting the seed in the middle of October, I dry them for a couple of weeks in a shaded dry place, then put them in a zip lock bag in thee fridge untill middle of December. Then I soak them for 24 hours and discard the floating seeds. Mixing the seeds with equal volume of peat moss, pouring water in the bag and then squeeze hard untill there is no more water drops. The bag goes back in the fridge(4 degrees of Celsius) until 10 of march when I put the bag in room temperature for 2 days to check if they are ready for sowing. The chitted seeds I put them each by hand in plug trays( filled with bark based substrate) that goes into an unheated green house. In the past, after collecting , if i put them straight in the fridge, they start sprouting in the middle of February, and no matter what I do, they stay small and don`t develop well. If I put them outside for the winter, again they sprout too early for my container based operation. Yesterday I collected my last batch of seeds and without drying, they go into the fridge , as they hanged on the tree in freezing tempeartures at night for the last two weeks without rain. The last photo is when I transplant one year old seedlings into p9 pots while sowing seeds in the plug trays. Hope that helps!
Hi Kyle, This seems to be the right method, except that for most maples temperate water is better. If "warm" water is about 20-24 degrees, I think it's fine to rehydrate them, but "hot" water is I think too much. The rest is OK.
There is a FAQ on this Maple seeds wont sprout. Sorry to be so brief, hardly have time to get my own seed soaked and into the fridge for the winter! :)
Personally, I've only collected seeds this fall, and the fall of 2014 (moved last year, no time/not convenient), but I had fairly good germination from my initial lot as I recall so I am repeating the same method this winter. After waiting until mid/late fall to collect - usually by this time seeds are fairly dried out, at least in Kansas and now in northern Alabama - I simply sowed them into my prepared soil mixture/pots, covered lightly with said soil, marked appropriately what the parent tree was for each pot and the collection year, and left them to the elements in a safe area (this year, on the deck). My soil mixture is nearly the same as what I use for my container maples, etc, that is to say, moisture retentive yet with good drainage. The only thing I've done differently this time around is, as much as possible, separated out the seeds into (mostly) individual pots instead of a whole bunch in one large pot. I wasn't able to do this with everything, but I remembered how awkward it was to transplant the young seedlings into their own pots in early fall of the first year's growth, trying not to break or rip the tiny, thin roots.
I've also done the outside method as Andrea describes, and in any case seeds that don't sprout the first year get this treatment during the second winter. But I wonder, Andrea, if you will have the same success with it in Alabama as you did in Kansas, where the winters are so much colder. I do find that during very wet and warmish winters -- which seems mostly what we now get here in Mudville -- a lot of seed left outside just rots. And the germination is naturally worse. Of course there are other hazards, birds but most notably mice. I lost an entire lot of really good seed to them one year, which is why first year seed now always gets stratified in the fridge even if I think it might to fine outside, and not sown out until March or April. -E
See attached. Whatever I have on hand, really. :) This fall, I purposely bought some of the band pots (see my comment about re-potting) and put up to 2 seeds, from the same parent, in each. Once I ran out of that, depending on how many seeds I had gathered for each tree, I put them into larger or smaller pots. You bring up very good points, and something I have thought about Emery. I will see how this year goes - crossing the fingers especially that I have success with the few Sherwood Elfin and Olsen's Frosted Strawberry seeds that were left on the trees (both had loads in spring, yet most were gone by early summer) - and depending on that, will adjust my methods accordingly. What sort of soil mix do you use for your seeds, specifically for the ones left outside? Up on the deck (15ft up), the seeds are less likely to be bothered than anywhere else, and it's easy to keep an eye on them. How much, and how cold, do they typically need to germinate in your experience?
Just got my Purple Ghost seeds, for the time being they are on the bottom shelf of the fridge, the problem is with spring approaching fast, should I leave them there in the fridge for about 3 weeks and them transfer them outside in a sand / compost mix, or should I put them in a sand / compost mix in a bag and leave them in the fridge....sorry for asking but this would the first time I have done this :) Our winters are generally mild in south east England if the seeds need to go outside
@intel: sand/compost mix in the fridge until March, then sow in a flat. They'll germinate better with some extra cold time. @Andrea, seeds that get sown into flats I just use my regular potting soil which is composted pine bark + fine grade pozzolan + perlite for young plants (I add larger bark grit or even some coir for larger plants). They have some sand/peat around them and then I put a little perlite on top. I don't really know how cold is good, I think it really depends on the maple; but the 2-3C you get from the fridge seems to do fine. I suspect the issue may be when there is a period of prolonged warm, as we often seem to get in Feb here now. Just in the process of setting up around 30 varieties of seed to soak, my goodness! -E
Finally got round to sowing my Purple Ghost seeds, they have been in the fridge for about 75 days now (since December 21st) put them in a seed tray, I guess this what emery means by a flat................filled the tray nearly to the top with compost and sand, sow the seeds and then a sprinkle of compost just to cover the seeds by a couple of mm Was looking at putting the tray in the greenhouse but in the end decided to leave them in a semi sunny spot in the garden fingers crossed they will germinate :)