I thought it would be fun to have a thread for this year's, and last year's, seedlings. I love growing from seed, though it's true that it's time-consuming, especially when it comes to the fiddly pricking out and potting on youngsters. With some regret I've decided not to keep growing all of them, but those that are "plain vanilla" from the beginning, I will now use as understock. Anyway, here's a selection, not much from this year so far as I (intentionally) started stratification late. So what is coming up has usually been in the tray for a while. -E
Here are some variegated seedlings. This fully white seedling is from an unlabeled bag of assorted seeds, mostly likely a palmatum. In the pot the green/white seedlings are offspring of "goshiki kaede" trident maple, showing high rate of variegation. The orange/yellow seedlings are from palmatum "calico".
Haha, boy I'll say! I've been potting up a lot of sycamore root stock for next year, and have got everything out of the fridge and into trays. Starting to see some distylum, capillipes, a few others coming up. The next big job will be deciding which palmatums go for understock, and which get potted up to see what the do next. But a little too early for that still. I've already moved a bunch of reverted sycamores into the rootstock bin, the yellow cappadocicum (from Aureum) should be pretty easy to spot soon, the greens will also be rootstock. The second to last pic is where the grand untangling will need to happen. These were the "unselected" from last year, still living in Acer purgatory...
A really pretty "gaki" type coming in, and this winter's grafts (which I think should count as seedlings!) coming along. Knock on wood, but my hit rate doesn't look terrible. I was concerned about the quality of the platanoides stock, but I see at least a couple of Walderseei coming out (knocking again) and it would be fantastic to get this wonderful cultivar back into circulation.
what's your secret? I planted what I thought were hundreds of seeds only to have about 7 seedlings spring up and none look quite as advanced as yours...
No secret, I just collected the seeds late September, planted them in that tray, with a plastic cover, left them on the floor of my greenhouse until this spring. Took the cover off when a few had germinated. They’ll stay in that tray until later in the year when I’ll transfer the lot, hopefully in one go to my allotment and leave them until they’re large enough to plant up individually.
One secret it to collect at the correct time, and not wait until they're brown and dry. One of the great things about TMBSI's seed distribution is, the seed is collected by experts, so the germination rate is usually very high. Another thing is, it really depends on species. Acer amoenum (like Ō-sakazuki) is much more difficult to germinate, and often takes two years, as opposed to A. palmatum, like Sango-kaku. -E
Wish I knew that. I bought an absolute ton of Osakazuki seedlings 2 years ago from a seed website, like half a lb of them, and only a dozen or so germinated. Can't remember what I did with all of the leftover seeds, hopefully scattered them in the woods somewhere.
The lengths these plants go to live and reproduce.. I spotted this one today in a pot with a small olive tree, it’s never been less than 20feet away from a JM and high up on a wall completely covered with roof tile crocks to inhibit weeds:
So these ones sown in the winter of 2023 must be amoenum, they only germinated a few weerks ago. I had put a tag "Atropurpureum", but I can't remember where they came from. April 3rd, and yesterday :
Love the contrast on that one, D. I just got my shipment of Ercol anti-girdling pots. Not as good as Airpot, but waaay cheaper. And still very good. (I was going to spring for the airpots at 1l anyway, but they're out of stock everywhere). I learned that Ercol has a new"Super Pot". with the standard sides but a grill on the bottom, and raised like an airpot. Not yet available in quantities less than 1500, but seems very promising indeed. I also find the Ercol pots heavier construction than Airpot, so they last through more generations. Although you can keep the Airpots going by disposing of the little plastic screw, and replacing with a stainless bolt and a couple of washers. Here's the first batch of '24 seedlings potted into a better environment.
It's the first time I've seen such pots, but it made me think of something I saw in a pdf document I keep in my "archives" : The document is still online, see page 57 : https://arboretum.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2006-64-2-Arnoldia.pdf ... and : https://www.pasquiniebini.com/fr/produit/ercole-2/
