ysrgrathe's contest entry thread

[ysrgrathe]

Looking forward to the contest!

I purchased 40 seeds from myseeds.co via Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LRW7SAA/

 

[ysrgrathe]

Okay, I couldn't resist...I ordered another 100 seeds from Treeseeds.com.

Yesterday I first soaked the seeds in 1C of warm water with 2T of 3% hydrogen peroxide. I then rinsed them off and let them sit in water overnight. Today, I drained them and popped them into the fridge in little bags with a bit of damp sphagnum moss. (I basically follow Jonas' instructions)

Interestingly about 90% of each batch of seeds was viable according to the float test: after 24 hours 36 out of 40 from MySeeds.co and 91/100 from TreeSeeds.com were at the bottom.

Some hypnotic video of neutrally buoyant seeds scarifying:

 

[ysrgrathe]

Planted two flats today after ~30 days stratification.

Small flat
From left
Two rows for myseeds.co seeds - 16 total
Four rows of treeseeds.com seeds - 32 total
Will be indoors with bottom heat

Large flat
Two rows for myseeds.co seeds - 18 total
Four rows of treeseeds.com seeds - 30 total
Will be outdoors

 

[ysrgrathe]

After 10 days under lights, 70F bottom heat the indoor flat has started germinating. The outdoor one doesn't show any sprouts yet; despite the 70 degree days last week the cooler nights (40s) are probably slowing it down.

 

[ysrgrathe]

At 20 days the first cotyledons are opening indoors; about half have sprouted to date. No sprouts yet outdoors.

 

[ysrgrathe]

At 27 days many more cotyledons from the indoor batch and the first outdoor sprouts are coming up. I moved both sets of seeds outdoors into full sun.

 

[ysrgrathe]

At 64 days, I took the cuttings. I followed Jonas' instructions and bedded them in sand over my substrate. I am trying two substrates this year:

• 40% peat (Pro Mix BX with mycorrhizae), 60% #2 cherrystone granite grit
• Boon mix

 

[ysrgrathe]

It has now been two weeks since taking the cuttings. I placed some in part sun, some under 50% shade cloth, and some in domes under lights. After two weeks the unprotected cuttings have all dried up. 100% of the cuttings in the domes are alive. Surprising me, the shade cloth cuttings are also all alive at this point.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Sounds really good... (The living part)

 

[ysrgrathe]

5 weeks after cutting. All cuttings under shade cloth and domes are still alive. I'm starting to harden off the cuttings in the domes.

Cuttings in the 3" pots already have roots growing out of the pots! I started fertilizing with osmocote plus.

 

[ysrgrathe]

Hardening off this batch under 50% shade cloth.

 

[ysrgrathe]

Here is a comparison between cuttings vs. uncut seedlings. The uncut seedlings are a bit ahead -- they have already extended quite a bit while the cuttings are just starting to push. This is probably in large part because the uncut seedlings have been in full sun since February whereas the cuttings spent time under lights then under 50% shade cloth. I've moved some of the cuttings into full sun and it will be interesting to see if they catch up by the end of summer.

I've been periodically spritzing with hydrogen peroxide, other than that I've just been watering and fertilizing. A few weak uncut seedlings have been lost. So far, 100% of the cuttings are still alive.

 

[ysrgrathe]

A comparison of some of my seedlings at the end of summer. Going left to right:

• 2-year seedling cutting for comparison
• A handful of seedlings I never turned into cuttings
• 4" pots
• 3" pots
• 6" colanders

There is some variation but the larger pots seemed to perform the best. Overall, the colanders were the weakest. Might be better to start in 4-5" pots and then shift to colanders?

At this point I've lost a grand total of 1 seedling cutting, and that was one I stuck in peat/perlite because I ran out of prepared pots. Interestingly enough 3 others are still going strong in that mix, I would have thought it far too wet.

 

[ysrgrathe]

A comparison of the foliage. The uncut seedlings have more mature foliage and are denser. A lot of the seedlings have low buds, some have multiple sets.

The "weak" seedlings sometimes seem to have potential to be good trees. They are small now, but they often have tighter internodes. I made some of the trees like the ones on the right into exposed root pines in my last batch and I think they could be interesting in a few years.

 

[ysrgrathe]

Inspired by Mark Comstock, I repotted some of these in the fall to try it out. It's still warm and sunny here for quite some time.

For when I forget:
Labeled "2018 NC" = Not a seedling cutting
Labeled with an "E" = Early repot, fall 2018

 

[ysrgrathe]

A comparison of the first node between seedling cutting and regular seedling. 1-1.25" on the cutting, about 2" on the regular seedlings.

 

[Fonz]

Dude, your seedlings are huge! I have about 150 pines, the biggest one is about 3" tall, must be a climate thing...

 

[ysrgrathe]

Interestingly enough my results from the previous year in USDA zone 6b were pretty similar. n=2 makes it hard to understand the factors that influenced the results, but my best guesses are (in rough order of importance):

1. Start early, under lights + bottom heat
2. Keep cuttings under domes until they grow roots
3. Full sun, but not 12 hours a day. They need some bright shade early on.
4. LOTS of water* (3x per day) and fertilizer.
5. Spray antifungals once a week (usually just hydrogen peroxide 2T/quart)
6. Maybe the mycorrhizae in the Pro Mix BX help?

*I think JBP actually like to be wet. The three uncut seedlings above were in sopping wet soil and clearly were growing like crazy. They want high oxygenation though which requires a large aggregate in your substrate.

 

[ysrgrathe]

It's been about 5 weeks since I repotted some of the pines in 9" colanders. They are just now starting to grow roots through the bottom of the colanders.

 

[cmeg1]

Awesome! I always had a hunch that seedling cuttings would do better in a propogator.I have some JBP under lights now just getting ready to cast the seed shell.I was going to make seedling cuttings with my propogator and a t5 ,but have decided to just let grow.I am going to pot early on into 2 3/4” Rootpouch pots.They have aeration all around,which I like and hopefully get good branching roots that will fascilitate first pruning nicely.
I have a full spectrum LED Quantum Board to keep them happy till Spring!......hopefully....I started big time early