Bonsai Seed Help

[chris w]

i have recently been given a series of seeds:
Chinese elm
Moreton Bay Fig
Sacred Fig
Norway, Japanese, trident and red maple
desert rose...

i have been wanting to plant them and get them to grow but have no idea how to start them of...Germinating them?
any help what so ever would be fantastic! thanks in advance!!

[bonscythe]

Hi Chris,
Not too sure if this helps as most of the germ. standards seem to be for natives but here is the link http://www.csiro.au/ATSCOrdering/GetSpe ... ndard.aspx for a CSIRO page.
Also try searching "fig seeds" on this forum and a while ago I asked about Ficus rubiginosa seeds and how to get them going, got alot of replies. That might sort out your fig seeds.
I'm sure there was another thread about Chinese Elm seeds too..try searching on this forum for that one too!
Hope that helps you in some way..
- Pat

[Japh]

This is something I've been looking into a bit lately too. Just for fun more than anything, as I don't really have the space for propagation

I would totally recommend Googling the terms with "propagate from seed". There's loads of great articles for specific plant-types.

I recently germinated some wisteria seeds this way. The instructions did seem to be fairly common to a lot of plants, but it varies a lot too.

[paddles]

I have a heated seed raising set up still manage to kill half of what I try to raise, I can get them to germinate no problem, but they tend to die of things like damping off (I sometimes think watering htem at all is a no no.) so remember getting them to germinate is only half the problem.

[techpetal]

Hi Chris,

Your fig seeds are best done whilst the seeds are still fresh so if they have been lying around for quite a while you won't get as many germinate.

I recently bought some off Deminimus on Evilbay and they provided what I hope is good germination advice. (Derminimus seems a pretty good source for native and exotic seeds in small quantities).

They don't need any pre-treatment.

Soil - warm shaded position in a light to medium well drained soil.

Sowing- sow the seeds in the surface and compress lightly in a largish pot or seed tray. Ficus seeds are very fine so mix them with fine sand to bulk them up and spread evenly over the top of your potting media. Keep the soil moist but not wet. Watering from below can help so use a water tray below the pot or tray to try and maintain even moisture and to reduce the disturbance of the seeds. Cover it with Glad Wrap to keep it very warm and humid. Germination is best when daytime heat is being maintained early to mid 20's until germination starts. Should germinate in a warm shaded position in 2/3 weeks. Watch for damping off and be prepared to apply a light application of fungicide if it does occur.

When they are large enough to handle put them into tubes and when the roots start to grow through the base of the tube repot. They are heavy feeders so try light applications of slow release fertiliser fortnightly.

Cheers
John

[chris w]

thanks everyone help a lot!!

[MasonC]

hey,
i have heard something like that you should freeze your tridents for a month or something on this site so it's all on here somewhere

[Japh]

hey,
i have heard something like that you should freeze your tridents for a month or something on this site so it's all on here somewhere

Not freeze, but refridgerate. This is called stratification and is designed to simulate a "winter" period so that the right environmental varibales are created to allow certain germination blockers in the seed to be broken down.

I read a great article about it called How to Germinate Seed for Bonsai.

[Jamie]

i have just recieved 100 trident maple seeds and am going to try a fewtechniques that have been given to me by members of the site.
i will be stratifying a probly a third of these and the rest i will probly just soak overnight and sow in a propagating mix. hopefully i will get results, it shouldnt be a problem though. i have researched this and it may take up to 2 years before the maple seed will germinate, so dont go throwing them out even if you think they are not viable