More Mold! (No Problem)

For the past month, I've had between fifteen and one-hundred fifteen giant sequoia seeds sitting in damp coffee filters in the dark. I realize now that there's no guaranteed way to prevent mold growth, so rather than freak out, I spent tonight cleaning all of my seeds, and transplanting them in new coffee filter baggies.

I found the best way to do this was to place the seeds in a metal vegetable strainer with very fine holes (less than 1mm square), and run room-temperature water through them. For the few seeds that had a decent build-up of mold, I carefully gave them a little rub, and more water. I used toothpicks to help maneuver the seeds, discarding them after touching dirty ones. I didn't want to waste my time cleaning the seeds, only to give them back their mold afterwards.

Once the seeds are in the soil and sprout, the air circulation should help prevent mold problems at that point. My goal is to keep them as clean as I can until then, then make sure to remove the seedlings from the greenhouse as soon as they sprout. With germination taking anywhere from seven to ninety days, the baggie method really helps fight mold. If I had planted the seeds in soil from day one, there would have been a serious mold problem in the greenhouse pretty early on.

Seed #14 - Germination

This is probably the best photo so far of the side of the seed coat splitting as the radicle pokes through.

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, seventeen days ago.

Seed #13 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, seventeen days ago.

Seed #12 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, seventeen days ago.

Seed #11 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, seventeen days ago.

Seed #10 - Germination

I don't know how this wasn't more obvious in the coffee filter - this is the longest I've let any of the radicles grow before putting them in the soil.

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, seventeen days ago.

Seed #9 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, twelve days ago.

Seed #8 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, twelve days ago.

Seed #7 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, twelve days ago.

Seed #6 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, twelve days ago.

Seed #5 - Germination

Originally placed in the coffee filter on 4/27/07, twelve days ago.

Seeds #5, #6, #7, #8, #9

I had five more seeds sprouting their radicles today. Seed #5 is the best of the bunch, the others are barely showing a root, and in a couple cases, only just breaking open the seed coat. I'm splitting the post into five separate ones, which will make it easier to track a seed's progress later on using my tags (seed_5, seed_6, seed_7, seed_8, seed_9).

I didn't see any harm in putting them in the soil a little bit early. These are all from my second batch of seeds, from April 27. They've been in their baggies for twelve days.

At this point, after three weeks, 9 of my 117 seeds have germinated, and 3-4 were discarded due to mold. I couldn't be happier with these results. I expect somewhere between twenty to thirty percent of the remaining seeds to germinate in the next two months.

Seed #4 - Germination

This never gets old... Another little radicle, this time from seed #4. This is from the second batch of seeds, along with seed #2. It spent ten days in its baggie (from 4/27 to 5/7) before showing activity. It's now sitting in the greenhouse with seed #2 & #3.

I'll continue to monitor the rest of the seeds, as they may sprout between 7 and 90 days after first soaked in water. If I'm lucky, I'll receive 40% germination rate. I'm hoping for 20%, since I didn't stratify the seeds as most reading recommended. As of right now, I've seen 4 radicles from 117 seeds, or 3.4% within the first two weeks - not bad so far.

Unfortunately, while planting this one in the greenhouse, I found two more moldy seeds in the baggies. I discarded them to prevent further spread.

Seed #3 - Germination

Here's seed #3, from the same, original batch as seed #1. This seed was in its baggie from 4/19 to 05/07 (18 days) before germinating. Into the greenhouse it goes, 1/16th of an inch into wet seed-starting soil, radicle downward.

I had kept the yet-unused cel-packs in the greenhouse filled with seed-starting soil in all along, and found it difficult to re-moisten now that it had dried out. I just emptied the rest of the soil back into its bag, along with a few sprays of water to make it more usable in the future.

Seed #2 - Germination

So it looks like seed #1 wasn't a fluke after all. Today, this little guy came to life. This was from my second, less-expensive batch from Whatcom Seed Company. This seed spent only seven days in its baggie before showing its radicle, which was on par with the previous batch. As I did with seed #1, I planted this in a cel-pack in the greenhouse, radicle downward, with a 1/4 inch soil covering. I moistened the soil and placed the greenhouse in some shade in the corner of my kitchen.

First Germination! Meet Seed #1

Most reasonable people would be able to check their seeds just once a week. Unfortunately, I can't go a day without peeking to see if any of the seeds has 'hatched' yet, sprouting its embryonic root, or radicle. I didn't expect to see any action for the first few weeks, especially since I didn't stratify the seeds first in the refrigerator for a month like most resources suggested.

Well, I was happily surprised. After nine days in its wet, unbleached coffee filter, one of my original fifteen seeds (now known as seed #1) sprouted its millimeter-long, white radicle. Because I folded the coffee filter like Shoot recommended (covering the seeds with one fold on one side, three on the other), I was able to see the radicle by holding the coffee filter baggie up to the light (second from the left in the photo).

In keeping with Shoot's Blog entry, I carefully removed the seed from the coffee filter, placing it in this simple greenhouse seed starter kit I bought at Lowes. I used starter soil, making sure it was wet and that the radicle is pointing downwards. I then buried the seed only slightly, keeping it about 1/4 inch below the surface. The greenhouse kit comes with a clear plastic cover which will keep the seeds warm, allowing sunlight and retaining moisture.

Now's the tough part... waiting. Hopefully this early germination wasn't a fluke, and more are on the way shortly. In the meantime, I've put the mini-greenhouse away in the corner of my kitchen where it can avoid direct sunlight. I'll need to check on it every day to make sure the soil doesn't dry out, killing the little giant before he has a chance.

Okay, So I'm a big Science Geek

So like all other science geeks, I anxiously awaited Discovery Channel's Planet Earth program in HDTV. In the episode Forests: Towering Trees, Falling Leaves, they showed scientists ascending on rope up the biggest trees in the world on the Pacific Coast. The tallest are the Coast Redwood, the biggest are the Giant Sequoia.

I had a thought that it'd be fun... and, really funny... to plant a Giant Sequoia in my back yard. The thought of a 3 million pound, 30-foot diameter, 300-foot tall tree behind a town home still cracks me up! Of course it'll never get that big, but let me have my fun :)

So I did some reading to see if it was even possible to grow one here in southeastern Pennsylvania. Well, I was surprised to find that one of the East Coast's tallest Giant Sequoias wasn't too far from here, in the Tyler Arboretum. So that weekend, my wife and I went out there, and I took this photo of her standing next to it. Further reading confirmed that luckily, I'm in a Goldilocks zone where it's not too cold in the winters, and not too warm in the summer.

So, that was a couple weeks ago. Since then, I ordered over 100 seeds and 13 seedlings. The original idea was to grow these from seeds; the one and two-year-old seedlings were ordered as an afterthought, just in case the seeds thing didn't work out as well as I had hoped.

I'm a week into this project with my first seed germinating a couple days ago, and my seedlings shipping tomorrow. I'm thought I'd share my fun with anyone else out there that thinks this would be a fun project. I bet most people are like I was a couple weeks ago - not knowing that it's actually possible to grow a Giant Sequoia in your back yard!