Collecting seed and nuts

[Bramble]

A bit early, but the early bird and all that....

When I'm out and about, I occasionally take the odd seed head or pod from wildflowers and try to grow 'em in my garden. I tried garlic mustard this year, with no luck, but I do have several nice honesty plants flowering happily. So my questions:

Which seeds are easiest to grow?
And what is the best way to get things like beech nuts and chestnuts to germinate?

I don't go around taking away masses of seeds, just a pod or two here and there And I'm aware of the weedkiller/pesticide risk; I don't take from anywhere I know or suspect these have been used.

[Lance Morgan]

I think tree seeds/pods germinate better if they are subject to low temperatures first. 'Stratafication'
Try keeping tree seeds in the fridge for a few weeks and then plant out.

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Bramble

When I'm out and about, I occasionally take the odd seed head or pod from wildflowers and try to grow 'em in my garden. I tried garlic mustard this year, with no luck, but I do have several nice honesty plants flowering happily. So my questions:

Which seeds are easiest to grow?
And what is the best way to get things like beech nuts and chestnuts to germinate?

Varies very much between species - some light a light covering of compost/soil, others to be deeply buried and/or kept moist, some need to be soaked before planting (legumes, for instance) - so it's really a matter treating each one individually. When it comes to large coated seed (nuts &) then stratification, as mentioned, often works as does scarification - scrape the seed on sandpaper (or concrete) to weaken the outer, protective coat. Good luck!

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Bramble

A bit early, but the early bird and all that....

When I'm out and about, I occasionally take the odd seed head or pod from wildflowers and try to grow 'em in my garden. I tried garlic mustard this year, with no luck, but I do have several nice honesty plants flowering happily. So my questions:

Which seeds are easiest to grow?
And what is the best way to get things like beech nuts and chestnuts to germinate?

I don't go around taking away masses of seeds, just a pod or two here and there And I'm aware of the weedkiller/pesticide risk; I don't take from anywhere I know or suspect these have been used.

As to what is easy - that's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question.

Perhaps the best approach is to see what seed is available to you and then refer to a good gardening book, which should give you guidance on how to propagate different seed types - and also the requirements of different plant families. So although a gardening guide may not list a specific wild plant, by looking up a related cultivated species you will get a good approximation to the methods appropriate to those plants you wish to propagate.

It should be said that many wild plant seeds are available from legitimate suppliers and this really is a better (and more certainly legal) route to go down. Bought seed does usually come with the advantage that it is both live and disease free so that propogation effort will be maximal.

CM

[GuyF]

I'm growing a few plants from bought seed packets this year to put around the garden. I can't give much information as I am only growing 6 species, but I can tell you that at the moment Teasel and Tufted Vetch are definetely the most successful growers, so if you can find any of their seeds they shouldn't be too hard to grow.
Guy

[svenrufus]

I'm amazed you had trouble with Garlic Mustard, I now have a bit of a problem with it, all stemming from a few seeds just chucked in the garden randomly.

My approach has always been to do just that - ie randomly scatter in the garden and leave it to sort itself out.
Goatsbeard has worked well, Mallows are quite easy, herb robert, nothing fancy, but stuff i like a lot.
Red campion also easy, as are a lot of the peas - black medick, hop trefoil and various vetches.
I got all these growing OK, unfortunately natural selection has weeded a lot of them out since then.
Oxeye daisy too.
But my personal favourite is some Common Broomrape which seems to have taken hold - weird thing is it looks like it is parastising Teasel (another winner), rather than the clover it is supposed to. I got the spores from some I found in a front garden down the road, where it seemed to be growing of Hebe!
Foxglove and Mullein worked as well.
Not to forget Forget-Me-Nots, can't fail.

I would disagree with Cotham Marble - don't go for packet stuff, go the home made route. Packet seeds may have been harvested overseas, and so are not native. If you get seeds from your local patch, you are making use of, preserving and enhancing your local biodiversity. Some packet seeds are greenhouse raised, using lots of land, energy and water for something that can be gathered smply by your own hand. It is much more satisfying to see things grow knowing you got it there and its ancestors live a few hundred yards down the road, than to think it came from a glasshouse in the Netherlands and was shipped into your garden.

I did put a bit more effort into getting some Guelder Rose going, the only woody plant I have tried. I had to put the berries in the freezer for a few nights, the buried them a few inches below the soil in some pots, left on the balcony. It takes 18 months before they germinate. I planted 6, I got 5, gave one away, killed another, and the other 3 are doing well - 2 and a half years since planted, and 4 inches high, slow but very satisfying.

Have fun!

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

I to tried to grow garlic mustard with no luck but luckily the site i was planning on putting it has tons this year

Have done well with Tree seeds, last year i planted 6 Beech Nuts and all 6 came up, plus a couple of acorn i left outside and forgot about started to germinte last year in the open, so i planted those and they are now 4inch high

[Hornbeam]

I gathered seeds from our local hornbeams and they are now growing well. We are gonna take over the world!

[Cotham Marble]

[quote=svenrufus;116658]
I would disagree with Cotham Marble - don't go for packet stuff, go the home made route. Packet seeds may have been harvested overseas, and so are not native. If you get seeds from your local patch, you are making use of, preserving and enhancing your local biodiversity. Some packet seeds are greenhouse raised, using lots of land, energy and water for something that can be gathered smply by your own hand. It is much more satisfying to see things grow knowing you got it there and its ancestors live a few hundred yards down the road, than to think it came from a glasshouse in the Netherlands and was shipped into your garden. QUOTE]

I do acknowledge that commercial seed also has its problems. However as this is a public forum I think we should always be concerned about the potential wider effect of recommending a particular practice - in this case wild seed collection.

A helpful intriduction to the issues involved can be found at:

Code of Conduct

which incudes two paragraphs:

Fruits, seeds and fungi

Non-commercial gathering of berries, nuts and mushrooms for the table is a traditional use of the countryside and probably does no harm to the plant, providing it is carried out in moderation and the plant is common. However, many plants and fungi are poisonous, so never eat anything unless you are sure that it is safe to do so. Collecting wild flower seed for private gardening must also be done sparingly and only common species should be gathered. English Nature has produced a separate code for the conservation of fungi, together with guidance for those who collect mushrooms to eat. Please contact EN at the address given below.

Safeguarding habitats

Unintentional damage can be caused by well meaning people, so remember that trampling can kill vegetation and lead to soil compaction. If you visit a rare plant, avoid doing anything which may alter its surroundings or expose its location to collectors. Avoid publicising the sites of rare species, but inform your local Wildlife Trust, botanical society recorder, or statutory conservation agency about new finds, as they can help to safeguard the plants and their habitats. Respect requests from conservation bodies or landowners not to visit particular sites at certain times.

Plants on Schedule 8 of the WL&C Act are listed at:

Plants

The growing of native plants in gardens is likely to have a number of benefits and if the use of native plants can be popularised then we will have to accept that nursery grown plants will be the main sustainable source - encouraging tens of thousands of gardeners to go collecting wild seed is simply not an option.

One point about successful growing from seed. Many native plants are adapted to thrive on soils that are far more nutrient deprived than that found in the average UK garden. Direct sowing is often more effective than seed tray propagation - but in garden soil optimised for cultivated species the native species may fail to compete with those plants already established in the garden. Removing some of the topsoil, bringing subsoil to the surface and avoiding adding fertiliser may help some native plants to become established.

It is also worth remembering that in the wild, short lived species will often not remain in the same spot for long having exhausted those nutrients on which they depend. For gardeners wanting to keep a measure of design a process of rotation is probably necessary to avoid the inevitable 'gaps' that arise.

CM

[Bramble]

Thank you for all those suggestions - I am fed up with chestnuts sitting about in pots doing nowt I would like to reiterate that I do only take one or two - plenty left for squirrels, doves, pigeons etc.