From Seed Division: Kanorin's "lets see what sprouts mega-thread"

Kanorin

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I should also be honest and say that my survival rates for keeping germinated seedlings alive has been atrocious! From the winter/spring crop only a few crabapples and red and silver maples have survived. The rest either never sprouted or got fungus or too much sun or eaten by my cat.
 

LittleDingus

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I should also be honest and say that my survival rates for keeping germinated seedlings alive has been atrocious! From the winter/spring crop only a few crabapples and red and silver maples have survived. The rest either never sprouted or got fungus or too much sun or eaten by my cat.

The greatest threat to my seedlings is my cat :(

Propping those domes up a bit so air can get under them would help with fungal issues. 1/4" or so is plenty. This should help the most. You will need to water more frequently. I use a spray bottle and mist water mine daily...but only if they need it.

I've also created a weak dilution of a copper fungal spray to mist water my more susceptible seedlings with. Just enough fungal spray in a pint of water to give it a noticeable blue tint. There are really only a few cases I've needed this, however.
 

Kanorin

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Started the dormancy clock for some pitch pine and Malus ioensis (native crabapple - very excited about this one!).

The nice thing about starting plants from seed is that you can lose 100 of them and only be down about $5-$10. And entertainment value offsets that by a long shot.
 

HorseloverFat

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Started the dormancy clock for some pitch pine and Malus ioensis (native crabapple - very excited about this one!).

The nice thing about starting plants from seed is that you can lose 100 of them and only be down about $5-$10. And entertainment value offsets that by a long shot.
Just to warn you..Malus get very upset indoors.. quite quickly..

Upset trees means weakER trees...

WeakER trees attract spores and bugs..

Malus kind of do this anyways... just “looking out” ;)

I always start cold-strat in January.... NOW, after much “heartache”. 🤣
 

Kanorin

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Just to warn you..Malus get very upset indoors.. quite quickly..

Upset trees means weakER trees...

WeakER trees attract spores and bugs..

Malus kind of do this anyways... just “looking out” ;)

I always start cold-strat in January.... NOW, after much “heartache”. 🤣
Good to know! I reserved about 60% of the bag for round 2 - so I’ll start that group off in Jan (maybe late Dec in my climate)
 

Kanorin

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Doing much better keeping young seedlings alive this year. Probably much of that success is growing them out in a fir bark + peat + pumice mix and nursery cans. Love the seedling diversity that comes out of the crabapple genetic ocean.
047758D5-F098-48EE-8EC3-AF020B70DF9B.jpeg
CD719E9B-B4DB-41BE-B53E-E1A3422E7E4F.jpeg6828423F-1765-4402-82FE-12666109C335.jpeg
few ulmus volunteers mixed in there too.
 

Kanorin

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Crabapples are coming along nicely. Might assemble them into some kind of forest in an Anderson flat next year. The shallow tray definitely produced the slowest growth. It also allowed some rabbits to prune them easier.
 

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