iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Seeding Spruce

Started by grassfed, August 28, 2012, 09:19:48 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

grassfed

I have been cutting balsam fir this summer and it has been nice and dry. The area was a pasture about 60+- years ago and the land should be good for spruce. In the skid areas the top soil is exposed and I was thinking that I would like to get some white spruce started since there is not much spruce in this area. About 12 years ago I planted a bunch or NRCS white spruce seedlings on different parts of the farm  and these are producing many cones this year that I can easily pic. Is there any simple technique that might use to take these cones and get some of the seeds to germinate on the cut site?
Mike

BaldBob

"Is there any simple technique that might use to take these cones and get some of the seeds to germinate on the cut site? "

Yes, there is a way, but the problematic word is simple.
1. Its very important that the cones are mature when you pick them. 2. Spruce seed is very light and not easy to handle. 3. Spruce cones usually contain a high percentage of non-viable seed.
I don't know if it holds true for spruce, but for some species, when the cone will float in 30 weight oil, it is mature.
Place the mature cones in a burlap sack - about 1/2 full- in a dry shady well aired place to dry for a several weeks,  Make a tumbler out of relatively fine mesh hardware cloth to extract and de-wing the seed. With the tumbler about 1/2 full of dry cones turn it slowly for three or four days while hitting it with a flow of warm air (hair dryer on low or medium setting). Collect the seed and keep it in a sealed plastic bag in the freezer until you are ready to spread it (organ grinder hand held type grass seeder works well) on the site as soon as the snow is gone.

SwampDonkey

White spruce should be ready by mid September. If you have a lot of exposed soil in your trails spruce will germinate pretty good there on a harvest block that had mature seed. I have a lot of natural spruce in my plantations (cutover forest land) where the rows were scarified. It would have made as much sense to hire a dozer after the cut to just scalp the ground and let the seed grow. My ground had spruce all through it and lots of fir. There are natural spruce between the planted spruce.  ;D





All the short evergreens in the snow are pretty much natural seeded white spruce. This is out in the main trail, but where there is sufficient light in the scarification rows there are some growing there to.

I always find white spruce in skidder cuts, provided there was a seed source. They grow up in the skidder trails. ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Thank You Sponsors!