Desperately Waiting For My Nuts To Freeze

Temperate seeds need winters freeze… Three months long and steady… Stratification is the term… Before the seed is ready…

Like a squirrel I hoard my nuts… Then carefully hide and bury… One inch deep and mark your ruts… Winters cold is necessary…

Our records only a hundred years old… But earth is in the billions… A common argument I find bold… But only my opinion…

Without the cold of Winters chill… My seeds will never sprout… Future squirrels won’t get their fill… And that will make me pout…

One of my hobbies is germinating tree seeds, I have been doing this for several years now. It has almost become a hoarding issue for me, I always expect a 50/50 germination rate and end up with more trees than I know what to do with. Recently I located a variety of “rarish” nut trees and was able to collect seed from all of them, they are all planted in pots, and in the ground around the neighborhood.

The seeds of trees located in temperate climates will remain dormant until it has experienced on average 3 months of cold weather, this is to prevent the seed from germinating in the fall only to be killed in the cold of winter. In horticulture this process is called stratification, we can mimic this by putting the seeds in a refrigerator for 3 months. Usually seeds stratified in a refrigerator will begin showing a tap root before the time is up, as long as you don’t see leaves the seed should be left in the cool for the full 3 months.

If stratification doesn’t occur, the seed will almost always rot in the ground. If this happens often enough, it could interrupt or eliminate natural reproduction in nature. This would be a huge problem causing damage to many native species, although it’s important to note that many trees will propagate by other means… Only the strong survive…

I believe the earth experiences natural warm and cool cycles, I do not believe we can change this… Nor do I believe we want to change it… That could be much worse… I do worry that we are enhancing the effects… I know my multiplication tables… I am realistic… We will one day have more people than our earth can sustain… Whether we all recycle or not… Unless the earth violenty intervenes… Because no being with a soul can fix this crisis…

Maybe Nature… Maybe Gaia… But no human being…

working on a new way – chriscondello

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