New season's black pines

Thought I'd post what I did today.
These are black pine seedlings (about 3 months old) The seeds came from my garden tree. There is no doubt that fresh seeds are best!




The mix I'm using today. It changes every time I do it...
5 parts orchid bark, 2 parts quartz river sand and 2 parts treated coco peat.





As you can see they are already inoculated with mycorrhizae. (put in at sowing time)




A bit blurry but you can see here the length of the roots!




After pinching the roots. (I don't bother with making cuttings anymore. The root system becomes too even and a bit unnatural for my taste)

Place in the pot at a depth where the roots will be covered with about 1 inch of mix...




Cover the roots and add a bit of slow release fertilizer.





Top up with mix and tray them..




120 or so. I threw the rest away. Black pines coming out of my ears.




These are whites which I purchased and put in at the same time. 33 out of 100 came up. They were probably not stored correctly.

I believe that JWP are just harder to grow from seed. A couple of years ago I collected seeds from a local landscape JWP. Of the ~60 that I collected only 10 sank when soaked them and of those 4 sprouted. 4/10 is about the same germination rate you got.

I'm curious why you chose not to do seedling cuttings?

jeanluc83 said:

I believe that JWP are just harder to grow from seed. A couple of years ago I collected seeds from a local landscape JWP. Of the ~60 that I collected only 10 sank when soaked them and of those 4 sprouted. 4/10 is about the same germination rate you got.

I'm curious why you chose not to do seedling cuttings?

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They aren't harder to grow from seed you just need good seed. I have had close to 100% germination on seed I have collected from cones myself. Unfortunately those trees are not to easy to find here.
As for the seedling cuttings, I have no need to do it. I get fine nebaris without it. If you are looking for short fat trees then it's probably worth doing. I don't particularly like short fat trees.

MichaelS said:

you just need good seed

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My seeds were from an isolated tree without any other JWP neer by. It is likely that had something to do with the low number of viable seeds. Unfortunately the tree has since been cut down so I won't get another chance to collect seeds.

jeanluc83 said:

My seeds were from an isolated tree without any other JWP neer by. It is likely that had something to do with the low number of viable seeds. Unfortunately the tree has since been cut down so I won't get another chance to collect seeds.

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Yes I think cross pollination is beneficial with this species. I got some seeds once from a conifer nursery which had all kinds close together and the seeds were very viable.

MichaelS said:

120 or so. I threw the rest away. Black pines coming out of my ears
View attachment 171638

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Dang I'd have bought some off you