hi bstew. i have stratified some of my seeds and tryied other to be stratified naturally out side.
till now most of the artificial stratified seeds r sprouting ence the ones outside still seems to be dormant.
( well i haven't moved the ground but i mean if something is springing it's all under the ground yeth so i don't know about them lol )
i also have stratified different seeds the dissectum group seems to be the only ones still dormant.
Btw i am very curious about the result of your growing dissectum.
since i would love to understand how much luck may one have in maples grown by seeds to have something better than parents, if u say any of your dissectum has dissected leaves i wonder how many wonderful different varieties has been able to be selected by the japaneese among 4 centuries.
is there some where any study on japaneese maple variability?
i would love to know if the percentage to have a new variety is high or low and if one have to sow hundreds of seeds to find one good seedling!
BTw i am looking for seeds i have posted the ones i am searching for in the gallery under my just born pix.
if someone will love to answer i will be really gratefull
cheers
marco

Hi this is my 2 year of trying to grow JM from seed. Last year about 25% germinated. One pot from last year is finally starting to sprout. This year my coral bark and bloodgood seedlings are all sprouting. All the rest of my selections have nothing happening yet. It amazes me why some varieties have almost 100% germination the first year and some zero. I stratified all of the seeds in the same manner. I am going to be patience and keep my pots for 3 or 4 years and see if they will eventually germinate. It is fun to see all the variability in the seedlings. The coral bark seedlings I have all have the bright red bark but the leaf shape and spring and fall color vary with each seedling. They are all very pretty though and I am going to try different fertilizers this year to see what makes them grow the best. Vertrees says that seedlings can grow 1-3 feet the first year so I thought I would try to see if my seedlings might grow that quickly also.

I only tried this with about 10 seeds but seven have sprouted.
The seeds that were striped, nicked, soaked and stratified sprouted within 8 days. The seeds that were just stratified for 4 months have been in the flats for 4 weeks and none have sprouted yet but I do suspect many of them will, just not as quick. I hope.

This is my first year with JM and with seedlings. In Sept-Oct-Nov I collected many seeds from different trees as I was driving around. After 2-3 months in the fridge in moist sand I planted in pots and kept in the house ( as I was told by a nursery-man) .The rest of the seeds I just put outside, still in the plastic bag. In the house nothing germinated for weeks, but in the plastic-bag some started. Coral bark very high % germinated, dissectum almost none. Seeds collected from a nursery with name-tag on the plant, so far I have 2 Tamukeyama , 3 from green dissectum( no name). At the end I got tired, just mixed all the seeds and put it on one tray, many germinated, only first 2 leaves yet, later I will know, what kind.We had a very wet January, dry February(mild), I picked more seeds from trees in February, soaked for two days, many germinated.But none of them was dissectum. I tried other maples too, not JM, the big seeds germinated in a week.

Paul, what is it " striped, nicked "? To cut off the "wings"?

Andrea

Do all the JM have to be wintered (in cold) before the will germinate? I want to try starting them by seed. I have a Wonderful Japaneese Bloodgood, and two Gorgeous Japaneese Lace Leaf Crimson Queen.I just love starting plants from seed and had had people tell me I have not only green thumbs but green hands. Everything I grow turn out to be wonderful specimens. I want to start out on the right foot with the JM's. Any advice out there? Thanks....a bunch!