How To Start Maple Seeds

[Swamprat1958]

your comforting company asked me to post how to start maple seeds (Samaras), so I will give it a try. Take the samaras you want to plant and soak them 24 hours in warm to tepid water. Take the samaras and break off the wings, then lightly scrape your finger nail over the husk surrounding the seed (don't scrape entirely through the husk). Plant two or three Samaras approximately 3/4" to 1" deep and a couple of inches apart in a quart or gallon sized pot of potting soil or compost (make sure there are holes in the pot to allow it to drain.

Moisten, but don't saturate, the planting medium for the first three to five days and keep it in direct sunlight. After the Samara germinates give it a good soaking of water at least one a week for a year. It wouldn't hurt to sprinkle a good balanced fertilizer over the top of the soil once every coouple of months. The next winter (sometime in January to March) carefully remove the maple seedlings and plant. When you plant them be sure to bury the root collar at least 1.5 to 2 inches below the surface. The root collar is where the root starts to end and the stem of the seedling begins. You probably need to plant at least 3 or 4 Samaras for every tree you want to plant.

I hope this helps, let me know how it works for you.

[crashdive123]

Good post Swamprat. As you can see, I moved it and changed the title a bit.

[your_comforting_company]

Any recommendations on the fertilizer? I use triple 10 in the garden, and 13-13-10 on greens, and I also have some rose food.. I forget the numbers on the rose food, but it's standard stuff. I'll get the seeds going tonight and post up results in a few days if they sprout.
Thanks Swamprat. Thats a big help. I've tried before but never thought to scrape the red stuff off the husk and they never sprouted. I'll try it your way and see what happens!

[Swamprat1958]

Any fertilizer would work, just use what you have on hand.

[your_comforting_company]

triple 10 it is!

this also gave me a little insight as to why they are prominent in that area.. It's called Dry Creek and is only full of water in the wet winter season. When summer comes it dries up. The silt left behind makes for some good fertile soil. Makes good sense. Thanks again!

[Rick]

Just curious. Why on earth are you wanting to start maple seeds? I spend the entire summer pullin' them and chasing them down with a lawnmower.

[your_comforting_company]

well... I just like giving back to Mother Earth. Kinda balances out my zen from killing weeds and cutting firewood. And I think they are beautiful trees. Once they are old they make a nice syrup too. I know it'll be years before they are big enough to tap, but if I plant new ones I won't feel so bad about damaging those that are already grown. I like giving back.

[Rick]

Oh, the sap angle. Okay. Sorry, wasn't thinking. I get the whole giving back thing very much.

[2dumb2kwit]

How To Start Maple Seeds

If the battery's dead, you can try to push start........oh, wait......you said.....nevermind.

[Swamprat1958]

Just curious. Why on earth are you wanting to start maple seeds? I spend the entire summer pullin' them and chasing them down with a lawnmower.

Maples were unappreciated for years for anything other than syrup, furniture and gunstocks. But in the late 1980s Dr. Frank Bellrose wrote about on wood ducks. Frank had studied wood ducks his entire life and compiled all he learned into a book the size of an Encyclopedia Brittanica. Frank studied food habits of wood ducks and in the spring when the Samaras are falling they make up approximately 70% of a wood ducks diet. There is little doubt that squirrels and other small game eat the Samaras as well. Any good stand of timber, especially near creeks or wetlands should have a good bit of maple in it for wildlife purposes.

[your_comforting_company]

There ya go. More great reasons for planting maples!
Tried to give you some rep for that but a thumbs up will have to do

[Rick]

Softwoods are just terrible around a house. Maples are so prolific around here that it's hard to find homes that don't have one or two. They are great trees when young but once they age they begin to shed limbs like a man going bald. Sometimes clumps at a time. As a roofer, I'm sure you've seen your share of new roofs thanks to softwoods. I had a young 20 foot maple in the back when we moved here and it came down the first year. It was about 30 feet from the house and I wasn't about to let it get any bigger. Not to mention the roots under the house.

[hunter63]

Just curious. Why on earth are you wanting to start maple seeds? I spend the entire summer pullin' them and chasing them down with a lawnmower.

Just thinking the same thing.
I was just pulling the sprouts out of everything this morning my self, 'of course they are sorta the "weed maple trees (silver)", but the are up everywhere!

Thanks for the info SR, guess the part of the country has a lot to do with it.

[your_comforting_company]

I bet Ted would find good use for those dead limbs. 'swhat he uses for fire kit. Shall we play "Spot the Resource" games?

[hunter63]

So, OK, I was out cleaning out the flower beds, (hope there isn't still a snow storm coming), and saved a couple of hundred seedlings/sprouts/what ever.
Maybe take them out to "The Place" as a lot of the elms are and have died out.

Note, when we bought the first 10 acres, we did our mandatory tree planting (unwritten rule, buy land, plant trees, don't know why, but everyone I know did it?)
Got 300 seedlings from The DNR, 100 pine, 100 varigated dogwood, 100 flowering crab apple trees.
Called "The Wildlife Mix" for about $60 bucks.
Might have 40-50 left, they were tender vittles for the deer.

[your_comforting_company]

9/10 of the seeds are sprouted and in small cups of potting soil.

I feel a lot better about killing weeds and cutting trees when I'm able to give something back like this.

Thank you SwampRat, for your time and information.

[Swamprat1958]

9/10 of the seeds are sprouted and in small cups of potting soil.

I feel a lot better about killing weeds and cutting trees when I'm able to give something back like this.

Thank you SwampRat, for your time and information.

That is terrific! ycc you might want to consider this on a larger scale for additional income, a 90% germination rate is phenomenal. Be sure to move them to gallon pots in a couple of weeks so they don't become root bound. If you know anyone in the landscaping business you can get them for free.

[your_comforting_company]

My mom does landscaping and I've been helping her lately since consctruction has slowed down. We kill a lot of weeds, so this is great, and we get lots and lots of different size pots. I might have to ask you for info on other seeds from time to time, if that's okay.
Thanks for your help!

[Swamprat1958]

Just give me a holler, if I know how to do something I will gladly to pass it on.

[your_comforting_company]

Lost all but two of them to the heat (I guess). They were in partial shade, watered every morning with collected rain, but they still wilted away.. If these two make it I'll be happy, but 10 would have been real nice. I could use some more "habitat" for wildlife around here... my mouth is watering just thinking about the squirrels.
on a positive note, my portulaca is doing really well and scuppernongs will be ripe in another day or three.
Any idea how to start those from seeds? I'd really love to have all four types of wild grapes growing in the yard. (got pics of the scupps.. gotta get them up!)
Bullaces, Muscadines, scuppernongs, and the smaller wild grapes. Muskies and bullaces will be a few months still before they are ready.