i succeeded with chestnuts ... by throwing a half dozen barely scratched into the soil ... and covering it with an old fashioned milk crate.. to keep the tree rats away ...

i tried the same with chestnut in pots.. in my barn ... and they pots dried too much.. and i failed year after year ... it just never crossed my mind.. to go water the pot ... which would have been a snowball or ice cube ...

comparing the 2 above methods ... it crossed my mind.. that when i channeled the squirrel.. and planted then in mother earth .. in fall ... she took care of business ...

are you going to try this indoors ... if so.. you need to start with cold stratification .... then media.. then lights ... etc ...

ken

I was hoping to do everything outdoors and let nature do the stratifying

Maples are some of the easiest to start.

As soon as they are ripe (different ripening times for different types of maples), you can plant them directly in the ground.

Once dry and kept over winter, they'll then need cold stratification early spring.

I've kept ripe maple seeds, collected late season, in a baggie in the unheated garage over winter until March, then gave them the cold/moist stratification in the refrigerator for 60-90 days and had great success in germination.

Silver and Red Maple seed can be sowed in the ground as soon as they ripen in the spring and you'll most likely have seedlings by summer.

Sugar maples ripen in the later summer and in z3, I'll moist/stratify in early spring and plant in pots until larger/stronger seedlings can be planted out or used as gifts.

I know nothing about Norway Maple other than identifying them so I don't accidentally plant one. lol.

I'm confused about ripening. Are maple seeds ripe in the fall after they've developed fully? Or are you saying that a ripe maple seed is one that's ready to be grown, ie cold stratification has taken place?

Lane, do you have a source for yellow buckeye seeds? I have been eyeing this tree as a possible addition to my woods, but I cannot spend a lot on more trees. II think DH would throw me out!

:-)

Indiana Girl, Sheffields say they have them in stock.

Anyone ever grown walnut or butternut from seed? Can you have decent success direct sowing these?

I have black walnut which sows successfully wherever the squirrels plant it and forget it. I have not tried to plant them deliberately, but suspect direct sowing is fine.

Maples come up sooner if picked and planted while still soft and greenish rather than hard and brown. Of course, one still needs to wait until they are fully developed. Just not to the point of having become dry.

Otherwise each genus (and sometimes species) has its own parameters, try searching the web for "buckeyes from seed" and the like for details.