Seed Germination

Part of my interest in Bonsai was growing trees from seeds, I had very little success with the seeds that came with the original kit so I started buying seeds from eBay for a variety of trees. My main interest was the Red Maple so I bought many of these.

I had very poor results in germinating seeds in pots of soil, perhaps due to over watering so I decided to try germinating in sandwich bags as it seemed like an easier way to control the moisture.

In January I started scarification & stratification of a variety of seeds:

All of the seeds were scarified by soaking in water for 12 to 48 hours, depending on the recommendations online. They were then sprayed with anti-fungal spray and transfered into sandwich bags with moist kitchen roll to keep the seeds from drying out.

Some of the seeds went straight into a heated propogator, others went into the fridge to stratify them.. again depending on the recommendations of online guides.

Over the next few weeks, I had a number of seeds germinate from the Flame Tree, Japanese Pine & Cherry Blossom. I put them into small seed pots and placed them under the LED light.

I'm planning to plant some of the seeds from the fridge in mid-February and the reset in March.

Quite a few of the seeds that sprouted died in the soil, I think this is because the soil was too compost rich so held too much water. In mid-February I replanted the survivors in different bonsai soil, this soil has much more clay, lavarock and perlite compared with the previous soil.