Tips for growing a cedar seedling at home from seed

Siberian cedar is a symbol of health and strength, a tree of life that you can try to grow at home. Growing a cedar from a nut is not as difficult as it seems. First you need to purchase planting material: it is desirable that it be a whole cone with large scales - the seeds are stored in it better. It is important that it is fresh, of a new harvest, without mold or foreign smell: such buds are sold in the fall, from the end of September. Roasted or dried pine nuts are not suitable for this purpose - the embryo dies at high temperatures. It is better to find a reliable seller in advance. You should not buy cones in places where cedars definitely do not grow.

Advice

To extract the seeds, the cone must be scalded with boiling water - then it will open. From the remaining scales, you can prepare a healing tincture or decoction, which are used to treat many diseases.

Seed stratification

When growing cedar at home, the only difficulty may arise: the stratification of seeds, which is necessary for their germination. It takes place in several stages.

1. First, the nuts are soaked in hot water for three days, changing it daily. Some of them may float up - these are empty seeds, they can be thrown away immediately.
2. The rest must be treated with a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate and fungicide, dipping nuts into it for several hours.
3. The next stage is cold stratification. Nuts need to be mixed with clean, moist fine-grained sand (you can pre-ignite it in the oven), sawdust or peat chips in a 1: 3 ratio.
4. The resulting mixture must be placed in a cloth bag and put in a small wooden box, in which holes are made in advance so that there is air access.
5. The container with nuts is placed on the lower shelf of the refrigerator (in the vegetable compartment) or placed in the cellar for at least 3 months. The temperature for seed germination should be about + 4-6 ° C, lowering to –4 ° C is allowed for no more than 2-3 days.

Every 15 days, the bag must be ventilated, the mixture must be moistened to its original state, and the nuts must not be rotted or moldy (the spoiled ones must be removed and the sand replaced). After a while, they will start to sprout. The best seeding season is April-May. If seeds are sown at this time without treatment, they can germinate after a year.

Accelerated stratification

There is a faster way to germinate cedar seeds at home, but it is less reliable than stratification in the refrigerator. You will need fresh, clean nuts, which must first be washed in warm water, freed from the resin, and then kept in cold (no higher than 0 ° C) for about 3 days. It should not heat up, otherwise nothing will work. To prevent this from happening, ice cubes can be periodically added to the container. Seeds that have sunk to the bottom are suitable for planting.

You can plant them in a substrate prepared in advance (sandy loam, loamy soils or a mixture of peat and sand are best suited), the temperature of which should not be higher than 15 ° C. Nuts are sown to a depth of 2-3 cm, compacting the soil from above - this will help the sprouts to get rid of the tough shell. The containers are needed with a height of at least 8 cm and a volume of about 300 ml. Crops are mulched with sawdust or peat chips, placed in the lightest part of the house, but without access to direct sunlight, and watered regularly. The seedlings need a temperature of about 20-22 ° C.

Another option for fast stratification can be used.

1. Pine nuts are soaked in warm water for about 8 days. It needs to be changed every 2 days.
2. After that, a sand-peat mixture is made, into which the seeds are placed.
3. Crops are kept at home at room temperature, periodically moistened and shaken, for 30 days, until they begin to hatch.
4. The seedlings are then refrigerated and stored at about 0 ° C until planted in the ground or immediately planted in a pot.

Seedling care

Growing cedar at home from seeds is somewhat more difficult than in the open field, since this tree is very demanding on lighting. If there is not enough light, it is best to supplement the seedlings with special lamps. It is necessary to prepare for the wintering of seedlings in the first year of life, if they stay at home, and will not be planted in the ground: they will need a temperature of no higher than 10 ° C. Such parameters can be on a glazed balcony or in a barn. If this condition is not met, young plants will die after transplanting into open ground.

Advice

One of the main enemies of crops is a fungal disease - "black leg". To prevent it, you need regular treatment of plants with a fungicide (once every 2 weeks).

It is better to start immediately accustoming young cedars to the open air: as soon as the threat of frost has passed, take them out into the garden or onto the balcony. This should be done gradually. Plants from seeds, grown at home, and not in the ground, are very delicate and can easily die from hypothermia or, conversely, overheating. The soil from above should be mulched with sawdust, pine needles or peat chips so that it does not dry out. Watering these plants needs moderate, no frills, otherwise the risk of decay of the root system will increase, but the soil should not be allowed to dry out. Cedars respond very well to feeding. For this purpose, you can use special fertilizers for conifers. They need to be brought in infrequently: 1 time in spring and 2 times in summer.

Wintering and transplanting seedlings into open ground

Young cedars grow very slowly: in the first year of life, they look like stems about 2–3 cm high with a bunch of short needles at the top. On the second, they can grow up to 7 cm, and in four years they can reach 20-30 cm. As they grow, the seedlings will need to be transferred into larger containers, making sure that they are planted at the same depth. Plants can overwinter at home on the balcony or in the garden; it is not necessary to add pots in drops if the temperature is not lower than 10 ° C.

Young cedars should be transplanted into open ground before they reach a growth of 1 meter. The landing site should be shaded, with a low groundwater level. Such seedlings will bear fruit no earlier than 20 years later - for this you need to plant several trees so that they pollinate each other.

Output

Growing cedar at home from seeds is complicated only by the need to stratify and create the right temperature for the wintering of seedlings. The latter is necessary to prepare plants for transplanting into open ground. Caring for young trees consists of regular watering and feeding.

In many ways, getting good seedlings depends on the planting material. When choosing, you need to focus on the size of the cone and its scales - the larger they are, the better. Cold stratification for several months gives an optimal result, as it is close to the natural conditions for seed germination. You can try several ways to grow a tree that will delight with the beauty not only its owner, but also his grandchildren.