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coachjohnsonlp

Picea abies seed germination

coachjohnsonlp
10 years ago

First post to the form. I am very new at germinating conifer seeds. I collected a bunch of seeds from various spruce and pine trees but mostly picea abies. I was wondering how much and how son to provide direct light. I just ran a germination test with 25 seeds and all 25 seeds germinates in a hydrofoam seedling tray. I have them heated currently to 73-75 degrees and most of the seedlings have shed their seeds and are about 1-1.5 inches tall. How much light should they be exposed to at this time? I have a 350 watt 6500K cfl bulb I got from my photographer buddy and have been giving them indirect light in my basement for about 8 hours a day. I was also wondering when an appropriate time to start fertilizing would be. I am a real newbie but have been fascinated with this amazing process. Any advice would be much appreciated!!!! I also have 15 germinated Sequoiadendron giganteum seeds from a batch of 30 that I got for 2 bucks on ebay. I sowed them after they showed radicals using the paper towel method. My fear is now that I have had decent success germinating a couple of different seeds that I will mess things up now......

Comments (19)

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    10 years ago

    hey coach.. welcome .... i dont know what i can teach a 'coach' .. lol ...

    now that I have had decent success germinating a couple of different seeds that I will mess things up now......

    ==>>> yeah.. isnt that the truth.. you succeeded wildly at the easy part ... lol ..

    indirect light.. is not enough.. in any way ...

    and i dont know anything about your fancy lightbulb ...

    i have had good success .. with many different types of plants.. including conifer CUTTINGS... under a bank of 4 common fluorescent shop lamps held 2 to 4 inches from the plants ... [read that two 2 light.. shop lamps] ... run 16 hours on.. 8 off ... these are all full sun plants.. and 8 hours of indirect light.. is not equivalent to direct sun ... no special bulb is worth the money.. its all about intensity .....

    hardware chain and some hooks allow adjusting of the height ...

    and i wouldnt bother fertilizing them until they are up-potted ... sometime in the fall ... if ever ... they are trees.. that for the most part thrive in some of the least fertile soils found ... and refreshing with new media at up potting usually takes care of such

    i would be more concerned with humidity ... especially in a house like mine.. that has a forced air furnace ... as this time of year ... its is hard to maintain such ... as evidenced by my chapped everything ... you dont mentio where you are .... and how long these things will need to be in the house ....

    as i said in some other post about indoor seed growing.. there are 3 basic variables.... perfect them.. and you are well on your way to success:

    LIGHT,
    HUMIDITY
    TEMP ....

    from what i recall .. out in the yard ... on free range pine and picea .... 1 to 1.5 inches.. is about all you will get this season ... most of the rest of the growth is roots.. that you cant see ... what i cant help you with... is how fast you will need to up pot them ... and dont confuse yourself into thinking.. that hyper-fertilizing them.. is going to change their genetic growth patterns .... these are no annuals.. that you can force feed to grow large ... you can do that in an annual.. because its whole life is one year ... you can not do such.. on a tree that might live 50 to 100 years ... or in the alternative ... and this is exactly what you asked.. this is where you will easily screw it up.. by adding something.. that isnt requisite .. IMHO ....

    and... any common web page on growing seeds indoors.. should give you about 99% of what you need.... there isnt anything special about the actual crop .... perhaps skipping instructions on annuals..

    finally .. they are trees.. they do not need a lot of water.. and most do not thrive with soggy roots ... so the choice of media is very important... and you dont mention such ... but when you up pot ... you can change what you are using ... if you start to have problems.. and come back.. mention such ....

    good luck

    ken

  • wisconsitom
    10 years ago

    .......in addition to the sound advice Ken has provided, when you do pot up, go only to a small pot. Resist the temptation to skip stages, as a too-large pot with a dinky plant in it can and often does mean overwatering.

    +oM

  • mikebotann
    10 years ago

    Temperature and light are interrelated. Low light and warm temps and you get long, stringy plants. Lower the temp to keep them stocky or add more light. I like a lot of light with cool temps for most conifer seedlings I've grown indoors.
    It's easier to do it outside in the Spring.
    Mike

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you Ken, Mike and Tom! Very good advice for a newbie such as myself. For the things that I forgot or didn't think to mention. I live in Southeastern NY and would like to bring all the seedlings outside middle of April to May. I have definitely went overboard as I usually do with everything and I bought a whole bunch of different seeds to experiment with. I will post some pics of what I have going on in my basement. I have over 10 different types of seedlings that have made it through the first month or so. Some of them are starting to grow their 2nd or 3rd set of leaves. Some others are still sprouting. I have used a few different mediums just to experiment. The giant sequoias have a sand, peat and vermiculite mix. Some other seedlings are in a potting soil, peat mix. Most of the spruce variety seedlings are in a basic viagro or miracle grow seed starting mix. I have most of the trees still on the heat mats. I will take them off as per the above advice and I will up the light. My light bulbs are far from fancy. They were less than 10 bucks a piece but cranked out more than 4 times the wattage of any tube florescent that I found and cheaper.

    This post was edited by coachjohnsonlp on Sun, Feb 16, 14 at 23:52

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Picea wilsonii

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    picea abies

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Picea asperata, Abies grandis and Abies procera

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Cedrus atlantica

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Sequoiadendron giganteum

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Pinus ponderosa

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Not pictured yet:
    serbian spruce, Siberian Blue spruce, Meyers spruce and Colorado blue spruce -FAT Albert I think collected from a family member's property.

  • hairmetal4ever
    10 years ago

    Looks great!

    I have a few conifer seeds that - I'm hoping I'm timing stratification just right so I can sow them (in containers) around 4/1 outdoors. We're still a frost risk until about 5/1 but overall our weather is warm enough by then, and I can protect from a light to moderate frost.

    However, for the non-conifers, I ended up having to pot up indoors under lights because they were sprouting radicles in the fridge (Aesculus and some Acer, also Quercus but I think since the roots are just now popping they can stay in the fridge a month before the roots get too long).

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Very nice! I have a few maple seeds in the fridge right now as well. I have a few Acer palmatum âÂÂSango-kakuâ seeds from a family member's property. Hoping I can get one of the three mature seeds I found to germinate!

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    10 years ago

    well ... sublime...

    that was the easy part... lol ..

    getting them thru to fall might be harder ...

    come back to us.. when you contemplate each stage... BEFORE ... not after.. like so many of the posts around here ...

    my biggest problems with seedlings.. is that in spring.. i usually get so excited outdoors.. that i forget about them ... and then do something rash .. that i later regret ..

    continued luck

    ken

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks Ken. I figured that it would get much harder as they aged. One of the first things that I read was to expect a lot of the crop to not make it. That is why I have about 300 seedlings going right now. I plan on eventually planting 30 plus on my parents property and putting a bunch on my own property. If many more survive I have set up with the highway department to donate them so they can put them along the highway that runs through our town. I would be happy if 15 percent survived honestly. I have a bunch of other seed in the fridge that has been there for awhile for some more rare weeping and dwarf trees. I wanted to have a go at the easier spruce, fir and sequoia seeds first. I appreciate all the advice from those with much more experience than myself and will probably be back often with questions..

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Updated pics of seedlngs from january. I started most of these seeds in january accept for the coral bark mapleseed that was in the fridge for three months. Most of the seed I bought online other than a few norway spruce seeds that I collected from cone where my cross country team trains in the fall and the maple which I got from my father in law's tree. They have all been outside for three weeks other than the giant sequoia which have been outside for two weeks.

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Atlantic cedar and norway spruce

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Ponderosa pine and serbian spruce. Right now I have thirty norway spruce, six serbian spruce, two ponderosa pines, eight giant sequoia, two coast redwoods, one atlantic cedar and one coral bark maple. I gave away trays and containers with over 400 seedlings to family and friends who showed interest in the hobby and kept 50 for myself including several fat albert blue spruce seedlings that I pricked and potted from the ground at my inlaw's last summer.

  • coachjohnsonlp
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    One question I have is how much direct sunlight should I be giving to the norway and serbian spruce trees? Right now they are getting 8-10 hours and some of them are burning a little bit. Should I put them in shadier spot? All the other trees are thriving and growing quickly especially the giant sequoias.