Download - Japanese Maple Seed Germination Report
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
“How To Germinate Japanese Maple Tree Seeds
Easily And Reliably With Better Than 90% Germination Rates…”
Revealed: Little Known Nursery “Secrets” - The Foolproof Method
To Guarantee Success When Germinating Japanese Maple Tree Seeds
By Ken Alston:The Japanese Maple Tree
Guy
http://japanese-maple.com
Ken is a contributing author to “NM Pro”,
the magazine for the professional nursery propagator and grower.
Dear Gardening Friend,
I am often asked how we manage to germinate thousands of Japanese maple tree seeds each year because usually this is considered very hard to do.
In this report I’ll reveal to you the little known “Nursery Secrets” we use to guarantee virtually 100% germination rates!
Read on to find out about the valuable free gift (worth $15.00) – I’m offering only to readers of this special ‘Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report’.
Germinating Japanese Maple Seeds Is Hard To Do…
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
If you’ve read any standard text or instructions for germinating
Japanese maple seeds and you’ll usually find virtually identical advice.
Conventional wisdom holds that successfully germinating Japanese
maple seeds is hard to do, definitely something for the more advanced
gardener. Conventional wisdom also says that the key to successful
germination is a combination of soaking the seeds in water followed by
"stratification" *(see below).
Soaking the seed is recommended because almost all the seed you
buy from merchants or from unknown sources (such as you will usually find
on e-Bay) is dry.
Dry seed needs to be re-hydrated then stratified* before it has any
chance to germinate. *Stratification is the scientific term used to describe
allowing the seed to experience an extended period of cold for at least 90-
100 days – as if the seed has been through a winter period after falling
naturally off the tree.
Even if you’ve tried soaking and germinating dry Japanese maple seed,
you’ll know the results are still hit and miss. People tell you it’s difficult and,
indeed, it is difficult to get any decent level of germination from dry seed.
So we discover by painful practical experience that conventional
wisdom is correct. It’s hard to germinate most of the Japanese maple tree
seed you’ll find offered for sale.
To make up for any lack of success as a result of using this
conventional method, you’ll be advised to leave your seed pans on the
ground for another year in the hope that a few more seeds might germinate.
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
Well, good luck! You might be lucky and get a few more seedlings - but
it's more likely you’ll have provided the local mice and other critters with a
tasty winter meal!
Conventional Wisdom Overturned!
Year after year in our nursery we get germination success of 87%,
92%, even 98% in some cases. And we don’t even soak our seed!
Here’s the REAL "Secret" to Virtually 100% Success in Germinating
Japanese maple tree seed…
…Use FRESH, new season seed!
Yes, honestly that’s the most important thing you need to do. Please
do NOT buy from seed merchants or from online eBay sellers who do
not care about your seed germination success. You are almost certain
to get old, dry seed buying that way.
Having bought Japanese maple tree seed myself in the past from big
name seed companies and then failed to germinate them, I decided there
has to be a better way.
Quite by chance I stumbled on the ‘secret’ of using fresh seed only
after finding a ‘rare’ source that offers fresh seed.
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
So here’s what you need to do to get guaranteed germination
success…
1. Get fresh, new season seeds – Go to: Japanese-maple.com
2. Store them in a zipper bag.
3. Keep them for at least 90-100 days in the refrigerator.
4. Look at the seeds from time to time and make sure they are not
becoming moldy. If needed, add a DROP or two of water, every few
weeks, so the seeds do not dry out.
5. If (and only if) you see mold develop, and as soon as you see it, use a
fungicide, very sparingly, following the manufacturer's directions or a
weak solution of bleach (1 part bleach to 10 parts water)
6. At the end of the period of cold storage, the seeds are germinating
naturally, even in the zipper bag in the fridge!
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
Below you’ll see seeds from “Bloodgood” Japanese maple tree sprouting
rootlets. These were simply tipped out of the zipper bag for this photo.
7. Transplant the seedlings as they germinate, planting the emerging
rootlet in a seed compost. We use and recommend using a coir
(coconut)-based growing medium – available here.
In the next picture are Japanese maple tree seedlings shortly after
emerging. You can just see the first pair of true leaves (red) coming out from
the center of the original greener seedling leaves (cotyledons).
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
We grow a lot of our seedlings in tubes. These are the same tubes
used by the USDA Forest Service. This way we minimize the additional
handling of seedlings (thereby reducing our time/cost and chance of
damaging the delicate seedlings when replanting).
Here you see a container of 200 seeds just beginning to germinate.
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
After a week or two the true leaves of the seedling trees open out as
shown in the picture (below). At this stage the seedlings are quite delicate
and are at risk of rotting if over watered. Keep the compost moist but not too
wet. If needed, we recommend you use a fungicide and follow the
manufacturer’s directions carefully.
You should also be careful to watch out for late Spring frosts. Your
seedlings might germinate in January – February – March and you could be
faced with a period of several weeks when the new seedlings are at risk from
frost damage. Your seedings need to be kept in a frost-free place but also
need to get good light and air movement around them. Keep the seedlings in
good light or they will grow long, straggly and weak stems.
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
You can see in this picture that even though this is a batch of red leaf
seed, there are some green leaf seedlings in the mix. It is important to
remember that seedlings are hybrids.
We know the ‘mom’ tree that
provided the seeds…
…But we don’t know the ‘dad’
tree whose pollen (thanks to the bee)
fertilized the flowers on the ‘mom’
tree.
So, just like our kids, these
seedlings will be similar to, but NOT
identical to the parents.
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
Seedlings should exhibit some of the characteristics of the ‘mom’
parent, but they will not be identical (a true clone). This means we CANNOT
name the seedlings with the same cultivar name as the parent.
For example, seedlings from Acer palmatum “Bloodgood” can only be
called ‘Seedlings from “Bloodgood” seed” or Acer palmatum atropurpureum
(if red leaved).
Your $15.00 Value Special Offer
As our way of saying “thank you” for requesting and reading this report, there’s a $15.00 value gift waiting for you.
The gift is yours when you order Japanese maple seeds online today. Simply order 4 packets of “Bloodgood” or 4 packets of “Red Leaf Maple” seed and get $15.00 off instantly!
I hope you found the information in this Special Japanese Maple Grower Report useful and valuable.
Best wishes
Ken Alston“The Japanese Maple Tree Guy”
P.S. Don’t forget, place your online seed order for at least 4 packets of “Bloodgood” or “Red Leaf” seed now using your “seedreport” offer code on
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Yes Ken, I want to take advantage of your $15.00 instant discount simply for reading your Special
Japanese Maple Seed Grower Report!
Go to: http://japanese-maple.com
Place your order for 4 packets of ‘Bloodgood” seeds or 4 packets of
“Red Leaf” seeds.
On checkout use the special order code “seedreport” on checkout for
your order of 4 packets of seeds and your $15.00 discount will be
instantly applied to your order invoice.
Special Japanese Maple Tree Grower Report:
checkout at http://japanese-maple.com to secure your $15.00 value discount.
©2007 Ken Alston and Commonwealth Plants, LLC. All Rights Reserved.