Japanese White Pine seedlings

[alpineart]

These were seeds collected from a couple off Japanese White Pines - Pinus Parviflora "Ibocan" purchased from the local hardware . I removed all the seeds from the cones and soaked them for 72 hours . As a small scale test 50% floated and the rest sunk .I planted all the seeds floating on the left half of the tray, and the seeds that sunk to the bottom on the right side of the tray . Well here we are in 20 days or so ,

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8 seeds that sunk have sprouted and 5 that floated have also shot up and 2 of these emerged last night , one of each seed . Now the question i have is , who can tell me which is the good seed and which is the bad seed . There has been a relatively balanced emerging time over a 15 day period for both floating and sinking seeds . I'm sure there will be a few more that sprout . All the seeds are in my normal bonsai mix used last season so it does have some fines in amongst it as the aged pine bark does break down . Fact or fiction , floating seed won't germinate , someone forgot to tell these seeds not to grow .

Cheers Alpineart

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi alpineart,

Early congratulations from me How old are they now, alphineart? I hope they will grow strong.

Best regards.

[squizzy]

Hi alpine,

Well done with the germination of your babies. I have personally never bothered with soaking seeds as I am not a wholesale nurseryman and don't need to know which seeds float or sink. I just plant the lot and see what happens. I would imagine the only real benefit for me would be to soften the seed cover but I figure that happens if the soil is kept moist anyway. The benefit for a wholesaler might be to sort the viable from the non viable to save time and energy when producing large numbers but you have proven not all info should be taken as gospel.

Alpine you are a shining example of someone who thinks for himself. Well done.

Squizz

[newzealandteatree]

Alpine, I did the same experiment with JBP and the result is the same as yours. No difference between the floating and sinking seeds. I have now stop soaking the seeds. Just sow the lot.

Cheers,

CJ

[kcpoole]

Awesome result Alpine and great to see another old time myth busted

Ken

[alpineart]

Hi alpineart,

Early congratulations from me How old are they now, alphineart? I hope they will grow strong.

Best regards.

Hi Daiviet, thanks mate , they began to sprout at 8 days in the green house and in 14 days 11 seeds had sprouted . The oldest seedling is now about 2 weeks old but i cant pick the difference between good and bad seed , 10 seedlings have the next set of needles growing from the center.

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

Hi Squizzy , mate the purpose for soaking is as you have said to soften the seed case , i don't bother sorting seed , just grow what grows .

Hi CJ , Seeds are seeds if they grow they grow . I have planted a packet of sweet corn and 75 % grew , so i have just as good a result from a few white pines

Hi kc , mate i planted some unknown pine seed directly into a grow bed , plenty struck but i have had 2 strike this season . They were planted into the grow bed 3 years ago . I know they are the same seed as they have a red candle /shoot unlike any other pines i have here .

Cheers Guys Alpine

[bodhidharma]

Lots of potential Pinus parvifolia coming out of your place in the future Alpine.

[alpineart]

Hi Bodhi , these appear to be easier than black pines to sprout . I lost most of the JBP's and Various others to damping off so i gave up growing pines from seed quite a few years ago. I will keep these under close scrutiny and hope they survive .

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

Well close scrutiny didn't happen but there is progress showing that pines can and do sprout 1-2 years after planting . I have just realized that Ibocan and Fukuzumi were planted into the same tray . Only 1 from last year survived the neglect and overwatering

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and this year 2 sprouted in late Winter and 2 a week or so ago but the snails have had a feed .

Cheers Alpineart

[treeman]

I hope you are still young...

[alpineart]

I hope you are still young...

Hi Treeman , mate i do bonsai , not looking to produce a world class tree, just growing another plant from scratch .

Cheers Alpineart

[yamadorikid]

nice cuties you got growing there....

may i ask what area did u place these in?

shady area and kept the soil moist..??

[alpineart]

Hi Yamadorikid , mate i planted them in my bonsai mix and put them into the green house and were well and truly over watered hence most of last years seedlings died from damping off . Absolutely no care after they struck as i watered the plants in the green hose these got drenched . With care you could have great success but the host tree's died from over watering so i lost interest and didn't care for these .

A lesson learned White Pines don't like wet feet unlike the Black pines i have here they are watered every day .

Cheers Alpineart