AusBonsai

Did you place the seed in a container for 90 days in the fridge with propagating sand and peat moss?? So that they germinate with roots before transplanting to a seed raising box

This is not necessary with fresh seed (at least in my area).
In fact more seeds rot when stratifying in the fridge so germination is often less

I stratify mine for 4 - 6 weeks in the fridge.
I get plenty of seeds off a few local trees, and have germinated many sucessfully in spring, but no self sown ones. Not cold enough for me

Actually just thinking, it might be due to spending a few weeks in cold damp that does it. Over nights get abotu 2-3 deg here, but winters are dry. Maybe the damp in the fridge as well is the key
Ken

I got a bunch of fresh maple seed from shibui last year and stratified half and sowed half. Germination rates was slightly better for the ones directly sown with no stratification and they are slightly stronger plants too. Temps would would not have gone below about 2 deg over night and only for a few hours just before dawn. No frosts at all last year. Same for Acer pentaphyllum and didn't even bother stratifying the tridents.

dansai wrote:I got a bunch of fresh maple seed from shibui last year and stratified half and sowed half. Germination rates was slightly better for the ones directly sown with no stratification and they are slightly stronger plants too. Temps would would not have gone below about 2 deg over night and only for a few hours just before dawn. No frosts at all last year. Same for Acer pentaphyllum and didn't even bother stratifying the tridents.

did you have any rain while germinating?

Ken

Don't remeber. It only took a week for them to come up. I had soaked them overnight before sowing. And they would have been watered along with my other plants in the shade house.

I have just collected seed-they are proper brown and dry.
In the past I have tried stratifying without success.
I think I'm going to go for shibui suggestion of plant and forget! It does get pretty cold in my area with some heavy frosts.



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But what about Bloodgood Maple or even the Dissectum Maples?[/quote]
Most of the dissected maples are weak roots and thus are grafted on to other maple stock[/quote]


Disssectum seedlings are worth growing. They vary a lot; some grow strongly on their own roots. Collect a lot of seeds in autumn, sow them in styrofoam boxes, the gradually plant them up as they grow bigger.You will be really happy with them in 10 year's time.