I just collected some seeds from tulip poplar, acorns from 2 unknown oaks (one was very upright like a Lombardy poplar with small long seeds, and another one with branches from the bottom, more wide like a pine with big 1 inch seeds), big-tooth maple, box-elder and green ash. I need these seedlings for a restoration
project on my
land, a ton of invasive trees like Siberian & wych elms were removed from my property because they were damaging 2 old metal irrigation pipes which are 2 springs that ran adjacent to both banks of a creek on my new property. Thankfully, those trees have been removed along with the irrigation pipes because now they're emptying upstream as they should and water is diverted downstream instead. The last time a water rights user used it was about a year ago, but now they've switched to a different company. The banks were highly eroded, scalloping and the water had high nitrates & nitrogen from upstream cows (I've encouraged them to leave a
NATIVE river buffer!), now the pollutants are lower but still there. Also the 2 irrigation pipes carried about 50-100 cfs each, and in 2011 they were done, they had to have sediments removed and most of the water upstream ended up in the creek and even then the water was filthy. Now that they're gone, and there'll be an extra 100-200 cfs in the spring and maybe 10-15 cfs more in the summer. Next year's spring runoff will be much greater without diverted water, and land owners have to have the creek widened or else it'll just erode & erode.
SO now that I have these seeds, I'm hoping to STORE them (I'm not sure how) and then stratify them & plant them in small 3x2 in or 3x1 in pots IN MARCH-APRIL!!! Then I'd move them over to bigger 12 in diameter pots (in 1-2 years). Because if I sowed them today, they'd be eroded in the spring! I want to plant them in pots by MARCH or APRIL, but stratifying them NOW would leave the 90 days of stratification in EARLY February which is FREEZING COLD. I don't want to invest in a cold frame or
greenhouse until next fall maybe when I can get some additional coconut fiber or temporary rip rap to prevent erosion.
SO THIS IS WHY I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO STORE THEM & THEN STRATIFY THEM TO BE SOWN IN POTS BY MARCH-APRIL! I know, this will pay off far in the future, far in the future maybe in 18 years when the trees are fully mature & give a nice view.
I want native/beneficial trees which will attract wildlife to my creek! By the way, my cabin is located in
Cache County, UTAH, United States of America.
AND, these are the seeds I'm planning to plant:
1. Water Birch (betula occidentalis)
2. Pin Oak (I know, the only oak native to my region is the gambel oak.)
3. Oak 1 (Long, smaller acorns, smooth) (tall upright tree, like a Lombardy poplar)
4. Oak 2 (Big 1 in acorns, texture & size almost exact to a "date", except it with vertical streaks) (wider tree, with branches starting at the bottom like a pine)
5. Tulip Poplar/Tulip Tree
6. Boxelder Maple
7. Bigtooth Maple
8. Green Ash (fraxinus pennsylvanica)
9. Willow (salix exigua, montocola, peachleaf, bebb)
SUMMER SEED
10. Fremont Cottonwood
SUMMER SEED
11. Eastern Cottonwood
SUMMER SEED
11. Narrowleaf Cottonwood
SUMMER SEED
13. Lanceleaf Cottonwood
SUMMER SEED
14. Redoiser dogwood
(unsure)
15. Western service-berry
(unsure)