What tree/shrub seeds can be sown into nursery bed in the fall?

I am working on my forest garden guilds this winter, and I plan to start a bunch of seeds in my nursery beds next spring.  I will not be home for the first part of the planting season, and I would like to sew anything I can into my nursery beds this fall so I can get a head start.  Any suggestions of fruit/nut/berry plants that can be sewn in the fall?  So far I will be seeding elderberries, persimmons, and Allegheny chinquapin.  I already have a bunch of chestnut seedlings and will be doing a big hazelnut push next year, too.  I am in Northern Pennsylvania, zone 5b - 6, btw, so I have some wicked cold winters  

Anyone have any experience seeding paw paws into nursery in areas with cold winters?  My paw paw seed source say that you shouldnt let them freeze, but it's not like they don't freeze while sitting on a stream bank in the wild all winter long.

Have you heard of winter sowing?  I do it here in South Carolina but it is really ideal for your area where the containers are buried in snow for a time during the winter.

With winter sowing I have zero problems with damping off, hardening off or forgetting to water, or watering too much.  I do have to watch mine because it is so much warmer here but even here I can go away for a week or three and not worry about it.

https://permaculturenews.org/2012/01/10/winter-sowing-%E2%80%93-germinating-the-natural-way/

https://permies.com/t/955/Winter-Sowing

I just planted my potatoes beds.  I have a weedy area that neede suppressing so I cleaned it up, got down to soil.  Put my store bought Yukon’s in the ground, covered with straw and 6” of wood chips.   This is the back to Eden method.  I can’t say it will work but people are doing it.  With this method there is no c op rotation.  You leave the largest potatoes in the ground when harvesting, for the next batch.

The best time to plant any tree seed is at the time it falls to the ground, that is how mother earth plants trees, it works.

The reason people came up with scarification and stratification was to mimic mother earths method with seeds that had not been planted as they fell to the ground.
Some of the best oaks I have in my forest were planted by the squirrels that forgot where they buried their acorns.

The best method for getting pawpaw seeds to germinate is to semi plant an entire fruit in a shaded area. Pawpaw's first leaves are prone to sunburn this even goes for the second years growth, it is one of the biggest problems with growing a pawpaw from seed.

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:The best time to plant any tree seed is at the time it falls to the ground, that is how mother earth plants trees, it works.

The reason people came up with scarification and stratification was to mimic mother earths method with seeds that had not been planted as they fell to the ground.
Some of the best oaks I have in my forest were planted by the squirrels that forgot where they buried their acorns.

The best method for getting pawpaw seeds to germinate is to semi plant an entire fruit in a shaded area. Pawpaw's first leaves are prone to sunburn this even goes for the second years growth, it is one of the biggest problems with growing a pawpaw from seed.

Redhawk

I think you are right on with this.  We have been so indoctrinated to the monocultural model.  I'm really trying to get away from the linear thinking.   There is way too much, "you can't do that out there."  

I'm trying everything that comes to mind...right or wrong.  There is no other way to learn.  On another note, I kind of did this with my tomatoes...I cleaned some beds up this weekend and there were quite a few partial tomatoes laying around.  I squished them and threw them all over the place.  Hopefully, some of them will pop up next year.

We feed our hogs, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, eggplant, and lots of other seed bearing items. Every year we have loads of volunteer plants come up in the spring inside their pastures, these are the survivors from their feasting.

This year I am gathering chestnuts from the tree at our courthouse and these are going into the ground when I get home, not deep holes, just doing them the same way a squirrel would as a winter stash.

I have some peach pits that I'll be stomping into the ground tomorrow.

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:The best time to plant any tree seed is at the time it falls to the ground, that is how mother earth plants trees, it works.
Redhawk

I completely agree with this statement, and thats why I am going to plant them in the fall.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:
The best method for getting pawpaw seeds to germinate is to semi plant an entire fruit in a shaded area.
Redhawk

What do you see as being the benefit of semi planting the entire fruit?  Seems to me it would be beneficial in terms of creating the right microbial activity and microsite conditions for seeds to germinate.  Problem is I am buying my seeds from a nursery online already cleaned.  They told me not to let them freeze, but I dont get that.  I think Ill plant them anyway now.  

Does anyone have any experience planting paw paws seeds that have frozen and thawed? or experience planting paw paw seeds in the fall in cold climates (zone 5b - 6?)

I haven't planted cherry tomatoes in ten years. They keep coming back.

hau Ryan, the fruit serves two purposes to the tree, if the seed needs to pass through a gut system the fruit is the enticement for those animals whose gut the seed needs to pass through, the animal gets some food and the seed gets the acid bath it needs to sprout in the spring.
The fruit can ferment and decay, providing nutrients to the soil that surrounds the seed, these nutrients are thus available for the seed when it sprouts, giving it a better chance at thriving.

Regarding pawpaw trees, The seeds of the pawpaw are designed to over winter in the soil, in nature it can take up to 18 months (two winters) for the seeds to germinate.
The newly sprouted seeds will die if they are not under a canopy and protected from the sun for the first two years. This makes them an understory, secondary tree in the world of succession.
Out in the natural world pawpaw trees are tall, reaching for the sun once they have grown up for around 5 years, the sun is what activates their flowering and fruiting cycles.
The flower of the pawpaw is designed to be pollinated by flies, this means the "nectar" is stinky, stinky, stinky. Many people say they smell like rotten meat, which is perfect if you are attracting flies to pollinate you.
Zone 5 is pretty much the northernmost you will find pawpaw trees growing in the natural world.

pawpaw seeds are meant to go through freeze/ thaw cycles in order to be able to germinate, they are noted to be notoriously difficult to consistently be germinated in controlled conditions like humans do.
This is a tree that needs quite a lot of water in a consistent manner, that is why in the wild you find them along streams and lakes.

Redhawk