Germinating tree seeds very early season indoors - viability?

I am trying to get some tree seeds going this year and have them in my refrigerator stratifying since autumn - chestnuts and pawpaws mostly this year. Some of the chestnuts have already germinated in the medium and have put out big roots (no leaves yet, they are still basically dormant). Not sure about the paw paws, I don't think they have yet (don't want to mess with them too much).

The dilemma is do I put them in pots now (it's not even January yet) and grow them indoors, or just leave them to chill (pun intended) until at least March or something. I am tempted to go with the former option and start growing them out for a super head-start this year, but I wonder if this will stress them, having such a long first growing season - it will be almost 11 months in my climate from now until late November when we get our first real frosts? Or will that give them a good head start? On the other hand I am worried about them maybe rotting if they are left for another 3 months in the fridge having already germinated.

i think the long head-start will be fine. i take it you’re somewhere where you can’t stratify outdoors?

the main thing will be insuring that they have sufficient light to not get too leggy. they won’t deal well with wind once they’re outside if they’re too tall and floppy.

greg mosser wrote:i think the long head-start will be fine. i take it you’re somewhere where you can’t stratify outdoors?

the main thing will be insuring that they have sufficient light to not get too leggy. they won’t deal well with wind once they’re outside if they’re too tall and floppy.

Thanks, I could stratify outdoors but I'm not doing huge numbers, just wanted them where I could keep a watch on them as I don't live full-time on the land and it's something nice and growey I can do over the winter. I don't want them growing in situ either, I'd like them in pots for a year or so as it's so hot and dry in summer these days I am not sure they would survive (though some would argue you should just let them fend for themselves a la the STUN approach).

Yeah, I might pot up the ones that have germinated then and see how they do, hopefully they'll be ready to go out by next year. I agree about the light, I would grow them under growlights to begin with probably as I have other stuff on the go as well, and then get them out in a sunny spot as soon we get some longer, warmer days.

Mark Danilovic wrote:...but I'm not doing huge numbers...

Mark,

You should do "huge" number. I started with 100 bitter almonds, 50 of them germinated in the fridge. Out of the 50, only 10 started growing in the pots, then only 5 of them survived and after a year I put them in the ground, then 3 were destroyed by rodents and I only have 2 little trees out of 100 seeds. If I had to do it again I would start with at least 1000. 5 years passed and the trees are only 60 cm tall, so when doing anything with seeds for trees start with large amount - like nature.

An oscillating fan helps the stems of plants and trunks of trees to stiffen up before they are planted outside.

I have started trees in our greenhouse in December a bunch of times with out issue.

Mark Danilovic wrote:I am trying to get some tree seeds going this year and have them in my refrigerator stratifying since autumn - chestnuts and pawpaws mostly this year. Some of the chestnuts have already germinated in the medium and have put out big roots (no leaves yet, they are still basically dormant). Not sure about the paw paws, I don't think they have yet (don't want to mess with them too much).

The dilemma is do I put them in pots now (it's not even January yet) and grow them indoors, or just leave them to chill (pun intended) until at least March or something. I am tempted to go with the former option and start growing them out for a super head-start this year, but I wonder if this will stress them, having such a long first growing season - it will be almost 11 months in my climate from now until late November when we get our first real frosts? Or will that give them a good head start? On the other hand I am worried about them maybe rotting if they are left for another 3 months in the fridge having already germinated.

The ones that have started to germinate should go into pots, I've done this with acorns and once there's some root they want to keep growing - the stored energy in a nut makes the put on some initial growth fast. The suggestions posted above are all good, I would add to that if you're going to grow inside for a few months make sure to use sterile medium and pots.  The first year I tried starting trees in December they had some challenges with pests and fungi by the spring, which lead to a losing battle with sprays etc - I had the bright idea to used some compost from outside.  Outdoor growing with the full sun, wind, rain etc cures those things.    Why not store half of your dormant seeds outside to finish stratifying in the spring, and grow the rest over the winter under some grow lights?   Winter gardens are good, starting mine next month.  The eggs in more than one basket kind of thing usually works out, and you get to A B compare the results by end of the season.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, I know doing a large number is probably a good idea, and I've watched how the Edible Acres guy, Sean Dembrosky does it, with those big air-prune beds, it's pretty cool. But I am not really doing things anywhere nursery scale, I just got hold of a few chestnuts that seemed to have good genetics and wanted to see how the whole process goes, I realise I may lose them, but if I end up with 50 chestnuts I am also in trouble, lol.

I have gone ahead and planted the two that I found to have sprouted in pots under growlights, and the ones that haven't sprouted can wait so yes, I'll have an A/B test, I guess. One had a pretty huge taproot already so it probably was a good idea, will be interested to see how they fare with such a long season, and if I end up with a few new trees at the end, that would be great, even if some future generation will probably be the one to benefit most (yeah, should've done this 30 years ago, what you gonna do)!

Mark Danilovic wrote:
I have gone ahead and planted the two that I found to have sprouted in pots under growlights, and the ones that haven't sprouted can wait so yes, I'll have an A/B test, I guess. One had a pretty huge taproot already so it probably was a good idea, will be interested to see how they fare with such a long season, and if I end up with a few new trees at the end, that would be great, even if some future generation will probably be the one to benefit most (yeah, should've done this 30 years ago, what you gonna do)!

Suggestion: keep your grow light a little closer than usual. And run a box fan once it gets a little woody. Keeping the light a little closer will help prevent everything from growing too tall too quick.  if worried you will get too close and burn ‘em, you can pickup cheap Mylar sheeting off Amazon and create an area where the light comes from all around.  

Joshua Hobbs wrote:

Suggestion: keep your grow light a little closer than usual. And run a box fan once it gets a little woody. Keeping the light a little closer will help prevent everything from growing too tall too quick.  if worried you will get too close and burn ‘em, you can pickup cheap Mylar sheeting off Amazon and create an area where the light comes from all around.  

Thanks, I will try to do that, the seedlings are in with some other small brassica seedlings, so the height should be about right, but also I am taking them out during the day when I can and putting them in sunlight to get them exposed to sun and wind straight away - we are having unseasonably warm weather right now, although of course daylight hours won't be enough so a few hours under lights are needed too.