Lindera benzoin germinating
Lindera benzoin germinating
[Image description: the very first growth from a Lindera benzoin seed has just emerged]
Here's a shot of one of the hundreds of seeds I transplanted yesterday. Lindera benzoin is also known as spicebush and is a critical plant for the spicebush swallowtail butterfly
We had them cold stratifying (a process that involves storing at low temperatures to overcome seed dormancy) in a five gallon bucket in a roughly 3 foot/ 1 meter pile of wood chips from the drop we had last year. They were stored in a substrate of aged wood chips, compost, rabbit droppings, and biochar we had soaked in our duck pond by using a recycled onion sack.
They were removed from the bucket and transferred to an air prune box, where we'll grow them for a year before planting a good portion of them on the property and (fingers crossed) sell the rest to pay for my plant addiction.
- Edit to show how cool the spicebush swallowtail is
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That sounds great, I hope they take well! It sounds like you have a pretty cool setup, ducks, rabbits, biochar all doing their thing.
I don't do much seed propagation (yet) but my partner has charged me with taking care of the recently sprouted broccoli, leeks, and checkermallow. Soon I think they are starting potatoes to sprout, and judging by the variety of seeds we've got cold stratifying, probably a lot more.
Thank you for the well wishes! I've got one 5 year old pawpaw that's started suckering its colony but want more genetic variety for sure. And yeah, lots going on around here that I try to stay on top of.
Best of luck with all those sprouts, and I encourage you to post about things as they're developing; I'm always happy to help and there are some other folks on here I consider much better educated about plants than me.