Seed cone collection

[Bonsai Obsessed]

I know there are many in the group that collect black pine cones as seed sources. What’s the timing for collection? What stage should cones be at when collecting to get viable seeds?
I’m located in coastal South Carolina,Myrtle Beach will be the collection site! 30-40 yrs back the beach accesses were planted with tons of Japanese black pines!
Tia!

 

[Frenchymanny]

Awesome project!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

The cones should be brown and opening, the time is usually late summer and depending on how wet or dry it is, until the next summer starts.
If the woody brown cones are closed, pick those, dry them and they'll open once dry.
If you shake the dry cones, the seeds should drop out.

But.. Pines are evolved to drop those seeds from a cone high up the tree. So don't be surprised if dropped cones are already empty.

 

[littletreefarmer]

I'm in CT, but I collected cones already. Will probably collect more today. Anytime after SEP 1st is the general consensus. I normally wait until after OCT 1st though.

Black pines only take 1 year to develop viable cones. So the open cones you would see nowish are from last year. I collect cones when they are still green or purple, before drying and opening. I put them in a big mesh drying rack meant for cannabis, and hang them outside for a few weeks. All of mine are starting to dry and open now, and I noticed mostly viable appearing seeds yesterday. Jonas Dupuich also recommends SEP-OCT collection. Most of last years' cones have already dispersed almost all of their viable seeds.

Seeds that should be viable will be larger, plump, and dark colored with slight striping. Any small, light colored seeds are not viable at all. You will still find some dark seeds don't pass the sinking in water test.

 

[Shibui]

Black pines down here take 18 months to ripen - flowering in Spring, open and release seeds Late Summer - Autumn the following year.
Many plants have viable seed well before the seed capsules actually release the seed so I'm not surprised to hear that cones can be picked green and still have good seed. Whenever I've picked green cones they take weeks to dry and open so I usually leave them until the first cones start to open then pick what I need. I figure the extra weeks can only allow a few more seeds to mature inside the cones but if you need to collect early, info from @littletreefarmer sounds reasonable.
Some things to note about pine cones:
Viable seed seems to drop as soon as the cones open so collecting open cones rarely yields good amounts of viable seed and lots of unviable seed. When the cones open after drying for a few weeks the viable seed drops out first. There will still be seed in among the open scales. From experience, it's not worth trying to extract those because the vast majority are not viable.

Pine cones open in dry weather but close up again when they get wet or when humidity increases. Closed cones in Winter or Spring probably not worth collecting. Also applies to cones on the ground. For best seed, pick slightly green, closed or barely opening cones late Summer through early Autumn.

 

[pmalelis]

I like to collect off the tree closed and brown, dry them and let them open in a paper lunch bag . Dry cones collected also have seeds but sometimes empty

 

[Bonsai Obsessed]

Black pines down here take 18 months to ripen - flowering in Spring, open and release seeds Late Summer - Autumn the following year.
Many plants have viable seed well before the seed capsules actually release the seed so I'm not surprised to hear that cones can be picked green and still have good seed. Whenever I've picked green cones they take weeks to dry and open so I usually leave them until the first cones start to open then pick what I need. I figure the extra weeks can only allow a few more seeds to mature inside the cones but if you need to collect early, info from @littletreefarmer sounds reasonable.
Some things to note about pine cones:
Viable seed seems to drop as soon as the cones open so collecting open cones rarely yields good amounts of viable seed and lots of unviable seed. When the cones open after drying for a few weeks the viable seed drops out first. There will still be seed in among the open scales. From experience, it's not worth trying to extract those because the vast majority are not viable.

Pine cones open in dry weather but close up again when they get wet or when humidity increases. Closed cones in Winter or Spring probably not worth collecting. Also applies to cones on the ground. For best seed, pick slightly green, closed or barely opening cones late Summer through early Autumn.

Thanks so much for the deals, this will save a bunch of time and effort, muck appreciated mate! Have a great summer !