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Re: question re seeding



MJ Hatfield wrote:

>  when to scatter?
>
>  the planting is about
> 4'-5' tall and very hard to walk through. There's not much chance of
> this forb seed getting to the ground right now  There will be a partial
> burn in the
> spring which would expose the ground and make it much easier to scatter.
> However, if I do it then the forb seeds won't have been out in the
> elements all winter.
>
> suggestions?

I'm in California, so we don't have the same prairie - but we do have
grassland subjet to occasional fire.    I would try 3 methods and see which
works best:
1.  burn some area in the fall - then scatter that area - there won't be any
nesting birds to bother, and the seed will overwinter naturally.
2.   put some seed in moist peat moss in the fridge in a plastic or glass
container for w couple weeks, then into the freezer for the winter; let it
dry in the fridge in the spring, then sow in your spring burned area;
3.  sow some now in flats and leave outdoors overwinter; plant as seedlings
in the spring  - after large enough to transplant- more work, but higher
survival rate.

Seeds that need the cold period won;t know whether they are in the freezer
or on the gourns, and mice and voles etc won't eat them.  By duplicating
fall rains and freezing winter, you are at least giving the sam e conditions
they would get in nature.  Who knows which seeds need fall rains and which
don't?  Some probably do.

We have some natives here that won't germinate unless they get alternating
periods of cold and warmth, just as our winters are - so we duplicate nature
by putting them in the fridge and taking them out repeatedly.  The best
germination rates probably come from duplictaing nautral condiditons as much
as possible.  For some seeds it won't matter, but for others it will.


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