Post Your Seed Project

[Harshadg]

Hi,

I collected some JBP seeds from a tree in my neighborhood. Is there an ideal time in the year to start them to get reasonable success? Should I wait until July/August or can I start cold stratification now?

[shibui]

You are lucky to have a JBP in your area for some seed

JBP do not require stratification although a great many growers do it anyway. I just sow seed in early spring and wait for them to come up as the weather warms up.
There is probably no real need to start stratifying now. The longer they are in the fridge the greater the risk of going mouldy.

[Harshadg]

Yeah, it’s going to be a mixed bag since I only collected the cones in late April when I spotted the tree. Next year with any luck I might catch em earlier.



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[shibui]

My JBP cones did not ripen until April this year so maybe you did not miss much.
How confident are you that the tree is JBP?

[Harshadg]

I guess I’m not.

I want to say the tree itself is about 30 - 40 feet tall.
And it’s planted in an urban area (as in not in the “wild”).

The cones, leaves, seeds and wings all looked consistent with images of JBP from the Internet (Attached).

Is it something else?

[shibui]

I have not worked out the finer points of pine ID but I do know that there are a number of pines with very similar cones.
As far as I'm aware Pinus nigra is far more common here in Australia as a landscape plant. It was trialed extensively for forestry and also seems to have been planted as landscape plants in parks, paddocks and to rehabilitate some degraded sites. Some of those plantings around here now self seed.
The bud on that branch looks darker than JBP should be I think. One of JBP distinguishing features is silky whitish candle-like terminal buds. Pinus nigra has darker buds, ovoid-acuminate, red-brownish with whitish fringes to scales, usually with some patchy grey-white resin.
Another point of difference seems to be habit - nigra is tall and straight while thunbergii often has several leaders and a more spreading shape. I'm sure those features will vary between individuals and also be influenced by climate and soil.
I'll leave you to check out some descriptions and see if you can work out any key distinguishing features (note that some sites seem to contradict others making ID even harder)

You can still grow P. nigra as bonsai.
I collected seed from some pines at Falls creek which I suspect are nigra. The seedlings look and behave almost the same as JBP. I've been using them as root stock for grafting JBP, JRP and JWP and all those grafts are doing well.

[Harshadg]

You might be right - none of my JBP have terminal buds that look like this.

[Daluke]

Add swamp cypress to the list. If you ever try - wear gloves. The seeds are so sappy.

[Keels]

I've managed to score some seeds off a Coral Bark Japanese maple tree on Monday. I'm pretty excited to see if they manage to germinate. I've managed to get some JBP seeds along with the drooping sheoak so this years seed trails will be enjoyable i think.

[Matt S]

I picked up a handful of Quandong seeds from my brother, so I’m giving these a go. As I understand it the germination rate is pretty low and I have no idea what I’d do with anything that did germinate, but it’s fun to try. I have some lucerne seeds on hand to plant in the tray if anything does happen so there will be something for the Quandongs to latch onto.

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Matt.

[melbrackstone]

I'm missing my "traditional" June planting from shibui this year, having had a knee replacement two weeks ago.... not really up to the garden atm.

Good to see what's going on out there though, thanks for sharing everyone.

[Ryceman3]

I'm missing my "traditional" June planting from shibui this year, having had a knee replacement two weeks ago....

Wow ... yeah, that'll put things on the back burner for a little bit. Wishing you a speedy recovery Mel.

[shibui]

I picked up a handful of Quandong seeds from my brother, so I’m giving these a go. As I understand it the germination rate is pretty low and I have no idea what I’d do with anything that did germinate, but it’s fun to try. I have some lucerne seeds on hand to plant in the tray if anything does happen so there will be something for the Quandongs to latch onto.

I've tried all the treatments for quandong and only ever had a couple that germinated. After that they are no problem. They can grow for nearly 2 years without a host so no rush to get something else growing. I put some native grasses in with the ones I started but the grass swamped the quandongs and killed them so you may need to trim the lucerne occasionally while any quandong seedlings develop.

I've managed to score some seeds off a Coral Bark Japanese maple tree on Monday. I'm pretty excited to see if they manage to germinate. I've managed to get some JBP seeds along with the drooping sheoak so this years seed trails will be enjoyable i think.

Quite a lot of the seedlings from coral bark end up with red bark but please remember that none of your seedlings will actually be THE coral bark and should not be labelled with that name. Sangu Kaku is an individual like all other named varieties and can only be grown asexually - cuttings, layer or grafted.
You will still have nice maples but they cannot be 'coral bark'

[Keels]

I've managed to score some seeds off a Coral Bark Japanese maple tree on Monday. I'm pretty excited to see if they manage to germinate. I've managed to get some JBP seeds along with the drooping sheoak so this years seed trails will be enjoyable i think.

Quite a lot of the seedlings from coral bark end up with red bark but please remember that none of your seedlings will actually be THE coral bark and should not be labelled with that name. Sangu Kaku is an individual like all other named varieties and can only be grown asexually - cuttings, layer or grafted.
You will still have nice maples but they cannot be 'coral bark'

I didn't realize that they could only be created from cuttings, layer or grafted. Thanks for letting me know lol otherwise I would have told everyone they were coral bark

[melbrackstone]

Wow ... yeah, that'll put things on the back burner for a little bit. Wishing you a speedy recovery Mel.

Thanks Ryan, workin on it!