Problem with trident maple seeds

kmdesigns

Yamadori
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Fresno, CA
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Back in December I purchased Trident Maple seeds and Japanese Black Pine seeds to sow this spring. They were soaked for 48 hours then went into the refrigerator around the end of December and came out at the end of March. They went into seed trays and my JBP's are doing fantastic. I have 22 of them at my last count today. For some reason not one of the tridents have sprouted. I can't figure out what it could possibly be other than that the seeds may not have been viable. Any ideas?
 

Mike423

Shohin
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Chicago
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They may not have been cold stratified for long enough. Some seeds need very little cold stratification to germinate while some may need 90 days or more to get a proper germination rate.
 

sammiboii

Sapling
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Raleigh, NC
Back in December I purchased Trident Maple seeds and Japanese Black Pine seeds to sow this spring. They were soaked for 48 hours then went into the refrigerator around the end of December and came out at the end of March. They went into seed trays and my JBP's are doing fantastic. I have 22 of them at my last count today. For some reason not one of the tridents have sprouted. I can't figure out what it could possibly be other than that the seeds may not have been viable. Any ideas?

Same thing with mine this year. The germination rate I got was 10 out of 300. I followed the instructions from Misho exactly. Soaked for 48 hours and in the fridge for 90 days. Black Pine did fantastic. The trident and zelkova not so. Really weird. But whatever, there is always next year. I'm not sure if this helps. A friend of mine said the same thing. One year excellent rate and next year, almost nil. Though the tornado that just blew through Raleigh made sure that any seeds that came up will have a hell of a hard time surviving. I had to transplant almost all the germinated so fingers crossed.

Have a great week and good luck. Oh and don't throw them away, you never know. They could be late bloomers.
Sam
 

jferrier

Mame
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I've been growing palmatums for several years and recently Tridents as well. I've found that its more like 120 days of cold stratification or longer. Last year had a few pop at 150 days. Some may start around 90 days, but most of mine really start to germinate later. I put mine in the fridge around Nov and leave them till the white taproot appears and then plant it, and I've gotten much better results that way. I normally get at least 50 to 80% germination. But could be bad seeds. Did you try a float test?
 
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Mike423

Shohin
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I agree with sammiboii some time the seeds take a little longer to sprout. I have also heard a number of sources say japanese maples or maples in general may have seeds still viable but sometime don't sprout until the next year!!
 
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