AusBonsai

Persistence will pay off BJ
Keep us up todate please

Ken

This is IT !!

Spring has sprung and ALL three methods (my last post) have given me lots (100's) of seedlings. It seemed a normal, good wet winter to me. Herself says it was colder than normal.
Even some of the exotic Seeds I "stole" from various locations have emerged but what they'll look like is still to be seen. I'm delighted but probably no wiser in my quest. The journey was interesting however.
So-o-o as I've often said, time passed, and if conclusions are to be drawn it is the original thought that the hot dry summer when I started all this, was just that and had a limiting effect into winter and onwards. That's not scientific but it'll have to do. A secondary conclusion which we all knew and which you have all contributed to is that stratification is necessary regardless of whether its by Mr Kelvinator or nature and as proven by Norman Deno.

In my original post I said I wanted to begin a grafting career. After this spring and onwards I will have the stock with which to work. Thank you all

Not sure how you can claim to be no wiser? If I read correctly all 3 batches have germinated and Lot 3 was not stratified (as I read it) and have still germinated so surely this means that stratification is unneccesary for this species/ variety/ fresh seed:?:

Shibui,
Thanks for the compliment on wisdom. You are right I am wiser
Living in the Mt Lofty Ranges qualifies "leaving out in the open" as stratification. A frost is when there's white on the lawn. A hard frost is when the bird bath hasn't defrosted by 3pm. A monster frost is when the Hill across the valley is as white as ... right to the top. The only thing differing from human stratification is 100 days !!
We had all of those this year including 8 days straight of mixtures of the above as well as many other random frosts.

I got seed from shibui of Acer palmatum, Acer pentaphyllum and Acer buergerianum. All was fresh seed. I soaked all seed over night and sowed all the tridents directly. Got nearly 100% germination within 3 weeks. The A. palmatum and A. pentaphyllum I stratified half and direct sowed half. In both cases I got higher germination WITHOUT stratification, the japanese maples close to 100%. I live in a warm temperate to sub tropical climate with no frosts this past winter and overnight temps rarely going below 5 deg.

From what i have read and observed I would say dried seed may need the stratifying, but fresh seed does not benefit. In fact in my case it lowered my success rate.

Hi bjk,
My experience is similar to dansai. I didn't treat any of my Trident Maple seeds in any way. I planted them as they were and had virtually 100% germination. Trident Maple seeds

Regards Ray