Hi. I'm in Australia, Western Australia to be precise. I grew a couple of stone pine trees from seed. That may be your best bet. I bought my seed. But, if you can collect pine cones from the ground around the tree, just put them somewhere warm and dry and they should open up and release their seeds. Then you need to put the seeds through a cold phase. Since you guys are going into Spring up there in North America, if you can find pine cones on the ground with seeds (that is, an unopened pinecone), then put it somewhere warm and dry and apparently when it's dry enough, it will open up and release the seeds. If you live in a cold area, then the pine seeds will have naturally gone through their necessary cold phase. So if you can get seeds like this, put them in water to soak and the ones that sink are good to plant. I had to put my seeds in the fridge for a few months (in a closable container in slightly damp coco peat - or you could use peat moss) for a few months to give them their cold phase. I planted my seeds into paper tubes so that when they were big enough to plant out (about 6 inches high and with a few little branches), I just popped the whole tube into the ground without disturbing the roots at all. I watered my little babies for the first year (aboput 2 or 3 liters of water once a week) and even though their second summer in the ground (Dec 2021 - Feb 2022) was very dry - 5 months with no rain and lots of days over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fhrenheit), I only watered them twice and the little babies are now big babies - about 3 feet high. I couldn't believe how well they grew in one hot, dry season. But, we only get really light frosts here and we don't really have winter - no snow, we can grow veggies over winter, etc. Meaning, the pine trees don't really go dormant here and probably grow a little even over winter when the days are short and only warm, not hot and we get our seasonal rains. So I recommend seed if you can get it. PS: stone pine are the ones which give edible pine nuts. That's why I chose stone pine. I have two of them out of 6 seeds. If you live in poace with cold winters, you may want to do some internet research on how long to keep them in pots or paper tubes before planting out. I grew my seedlings in tubers for just one summer and then planted them out in autumn. SO, to be clear, my seedlings have had one summer in tubes and two summers in the ground and are about 3 feet tall.
