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Maple seeds

hey, I recently went down to sue st mari and got some maple keys and now I want to start growing them, troble is ever germinating tactic I know of has failed. I’ve tried puting them in wet paper towel, and leting them sit, I’ve put them in a pot of water and let them sit, out of sheer desperation I’ve put them directly into soil and hoped they would grow. I only got 20 keys left… not much room for more mistake. anyone know how to start maple keys?

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Answer #1

Texas acorns do not like to germinate inside. Then I put some Newfoundland acorns in the greenhouse over the winter and they germinated in the spring. So it was also with chestnut “seeds”, that wintering over in the deep freeze triggered their germination in the spring thaw time. I’m not sure if the refridgerator freezer is cold enough, some seeds like to be “cracked” with the frost I think, and that may be useful for your mandarin seeds but they do not usually have to survive frost in their temperate growing zones. Otherwise some seeds like grapes could just go fausty and rot. I found that my apple trees germinate in the apples if you let them ripen severely so perhaps plant a mandarin orange itself?

Answer #2

orange tree? im currently trying to grow a honey mandarin tree…

Answer #3

Maple keys can sometimes take years to germinate - but when they do, they grow in any type of soil anywhere. Before they germinate they need to undergo a process called “stratification.” It means they need to go through a process of cold and warm - and happens naturally outside as the seasons change.

You can do it yourself at home - put some of the keys in a bag of vermiculite or sand, and put it in the fridge. Do you know what type of maple? Sugar maples need about a month to 3 months, Norway maples need more than 3 months

Plant the seed just under the surface of the soil, put it somewhere cool with bright light. But you need to be patient. It will take a few months to germinate.

Good luck - it can be rewarding to grow trees yourself. Consider an orange tree too… no stratifying needed and only takes 30 days to germinate!

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