Direct Seed and Grow Perennials - PEP BB gardening.wood.perennial

Dave Burton wrote:This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum. Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Gardening.

This BB is all about direct seeding perennials.

To meet the requirements of this BB you need to plant at least 50 of each of the following and verify that at least 12 of them have sprouted:
      - apple
      - plum
      - peach
      - cherry
      - apricot
      - pear
      - mulberry
      - seaberry
      - walnut
      - hazelnut

Here is a thread all about growing fruit trees from seed. Plus, here is a video to help you get started:

Here are some potentially useful threads:
    - Fruit Trees and Berries that Grow Best in Your Area Naturally
    - Tomato Transplant vs Direct Seed
    - Perennial Plants
    - Fruit Tree Guilds
    - Vegetable Polycultures
    - Fall is an Awesome Time to Plant Perennials
    - The Power of Polyculture
    - Modularizing Polyculture

In addition, all the perennials you start from seed must be grown outside and they can't be transplanted. While the wood badge for gardening requires all inputs be from within 500 feet the exception is for seeds. So go a head and find those amazing perennials that will boost your homestead!

Also, remember that to meet the requirements of the wood badge for gardening all systems are polyculture systems.

Tip: When working on this BB think about the other requirements for the wood badge for gardening and see if you can meet multiple requirements at once. You need to grow, harvest and preserve 1,000,000 calories from at least 30 species. So while direct seeding your perennials picking ones that either support your food crops or ones that are food crops themselves is a great way to move forward towards your straw badge for gardening.

How to Certify That Your BB is Completed

- Post a picture showing your 50 seeds for each of the following: apple, plum, peach, cherry, apricot, pear, mulberry, seaberry, walnut, hazelnut.
- post three action pics of the seeds being planted
- Post a picture showing at least twelve trees.  They must be clearly identifiable.  

So, where can we see how is this BB going? I'm really interested

It might be going well in a lot of places.  Since it's a BB, anyone who wants to can attempt to do it themselves and post about it here.  If you meet the requirements, you'll get certified for completing it (Yay).  If you do the right BBs, you get Badges.  This one is part of the Gardening badge.  So give it a shot if you want!

Mike Haasl wrote:It might be going well in a lot of places.  Since it's a BB, anyone who wants to can attempt to do it themselves and post about it here.  If you meet the requirements, you'll get certified for completing it (Yay).  If you do the right BBs, you get Badges.  This one is part of the Gardening badge.  So give it a shot if you want!

I will organize it and do it! And I'll wait for some follow up of other permies fellas trying it!

Dave Burton wrote:


How to Certify That Your BB is Completed

- Post a picture showing your 50 seeds for each of the following: apple, plum, peach, cherry, apricot, pear, mulberry, seaberry, walnut, hazelnut.
- post three action pics of the seeds being planted
- Post a picture showing at least twelve trees.  They must be clearly identifiable.  

??? Questions??? 50 seeds for each a picture of apple seeds and a picture of pear seeds will be hard to tell apart. Similar problem for most stone fruit and if someone is trying to do this on a budget they will be saving seeds from grocery/farmers market fruit and storeing them until they get enough assuming they are saving everything and not spreading out their collection to keep species apart they probably will have a giant jumble of seeds. Leading to the next question is "clearly identified" as a tree or as this is an apple and that's a pear, which I don't think you can until they are old enough to produce fruit.

I think if you have 50 apple seeds next to 50 pear seeds in the same pic, we'll believe you.  I'd definitely keep all the seeds separate and try to take one pic before you plant with little labels by each pile of seeds.

I'd say for your second question, it needs to be clearly identifiable as one of the types of trees you planted.  If it's an apple or pear, you're good to go.  If it's a cottonwood we'll probably say it isn't one of the ones you planted.

Oak, Locust, Stone fruit, berry, Pome fruit, Hazelnut, Cedar, Locust, Almond, Willow, Willow, Willow, Locust, Stone fruit, berry, Pome fruit, Hazelnut, Cedar, Locust, Stone fruit, berry, Pome fruit, Chestnut
   berry,    hazel,        cedar,   locust,      stone,      berry,    pome,    hazel,   locust,    willow,   willow, almond, berry,    pome,   hazel,     cedar,      locust,      stone,    berry,     pome,    hazel,     berry
with the plants 2 ft equidistant in a double row along the north of my 1/4 acre property line, the willows are where my roof drainage is dumped and will be under planted with stinging nettle and water cress. Most off the nuts will be hazel and almond but the edge corners will be anchored with upper canopy nuts like chestnut and oak. I'm planning on having my Pome and Stone fruit planted out in seed balls that have a lot of beneficial herbs and ground covers like how marjoram is good for apples and alums are great at disguising other pest attractive plants but as I cant tell if a pome seed ball is apple, pear, Asian pear, or quince there will be some chance in the exact distribution with a similar problem for peach, plum, and apricot. Cedar will give some tall strong supports for the fedge laying being woven around them eventually and early "polls" for vines to scale. Locust will be in a different seed ball mix with ground covers like strawberry rather than clover. And finally berries are where things get really wild, with the back row being mulberry and elderberry with occasional sala and huckleberry for interest while the front row would be mostly cane fruit, with oregon grape and sala for interest. Next year would be spent planting the east side of my property with the revised version of this plan and filling any failure to thrive spots in the north fedge with probably more berries since all those trees canot grow to their full potential that close together. If this plan is mostly successful the 3rd year would be the north side of my yard with walnut and pecan as my anchors and the cedars probably eliminated from the rotation so they wont shade my yard or this years learning experience may have me scrap this plan and go back to the drawing board.
So getting started on this BB. Nuts- 1 1/2 pounds of store bought raw. 73 almonds, 67 hazel, 20 walnut,
Fruit - saving pips for  this BB plus a bunch of Hale Mary seeds.
Locust - had 2 gorgeous trees that hubby sacrificed to put in a fence but I saved seeds before they were cut.