Assuming I throw some dirt back over it. These are pine cones from a tree growing 100 ft. from where I’d plant. How 'bout acorns? Same deal.
Helpful. Thanks. All the pine cones here seem to be open already. The tree in question has dropped a bunch of cones, will examine them more closely tomorrow.
I’m guessing you have a Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) … the seed bearing cones are at the top of the tree and they don’t drop until after they’ve released their seeds … so you may have some climbing to do … don’t be afraid to burn the cones to get them to open, and JohnnyLA was spot on correct about cold stratification … spoiled the botanical data from Trees for Me:
Pitch pine is a small to medium sized native North American conifer. It usually grows between 50 and 80 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet in diameter. Sources have conflicting information on the growth rate of Pinus rigida; however, most say it is a rapid grower with the exception being a report in the Fire Effects Information System detailing its growth as slow. The USDA PLANTS Database states Pitch pine will reach 20 feet in 20 years.
Needles are in bundles of 3, are 3 to 5 inches long, and yellowish green. They are stiff, sharp tipped, can be straight or slightly twisted, and persist on trees for 2 to 3 years. Found in the tops of trees, female cones are oval, 2 to 3.5 inches in length, and have prickles on each scale. They are yellowish-brown to grayish-brown, remain on trees for several years and some are serotinous, meaning they only open to release the brown,
winged seeds when fire activated. Male pitch pine cones can be found in the lower branches. Like the cones, the rough bark is yellowish-brown to grayish-brown with large, thick, scaly plates. Some accounts describe the bark color being from red-brown to black as well. The overall structure has a straight to slightly curved trunk with a wide spreading, irregular crown.
Squirrels bury nuts and seeds by the billions, and forget about them. They rarely grow.
The reason trees and other plants produce such a huge number of seeds is because each one has such a low probability of passing through exactly the right conditions (temperature, moisture, ground cover, etc.) at exactly the right moment for its development to continue favorably.
As mentioned, it may take a few seeds to get a sprout, but you should get one sooner or later. At 100 feet away from the parent, the soil may or may not be ideal, but unless it’s drastically different, something should sprout eventually. And then, it may take a few seedlings to get a healthy sapling.
(you might have better luck sprouting a bunch of seeds indoors, putting the sprouts in pots and then planting the healthiest one after it’s grown a bit in the pot).
There are some conifers which tend not to release seeds or germinate seeds until they’re exposed to high temperatures from fire, but I wouldn’t expect to find them in Indiana. And I’m not sure why watchwolf thinks pitch pine. If it’s actually a Pine (long thin needles in bundles of 3 to 7 or so), and not some other evergreen, I’d expect Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus). Which is pretty good at sprouting up nearly anywhere.
The odds aren’t that long; squirrels often nibble out the growing point before burying them, to reduce the odds of them growing. Plus a lot of seeds do germinate, but in areas that are too heavily shaded, have too little soil, or just have too many browsing animals, so they die at a small size.
I’ve accidentally forgotten a damp bag of acorns that I was intending to plant (did it again with sweet chestnuts that I was intending to eat, same result), and almost all of them germinated.
Yes - a lot of the seeds and nuts buried by squirrels do actually germinate and produce seedlings - the majority of those seedlings don’t make it through spring - they get grazed off by something or outcompeted.
Probably not an issue in your area, but some types of evergreens require fire for the cones to open. See fire mediated serotiny. Most notably, for us west coasters, are the Giant Sequoias found in the Sierra Nevada range.
Thanks … somehow missed that species when I went through the list of pines in Indiana … I think I skipped over it thinking it was quite rare … I see I was mistaken …
Growing from acorns? You bet. My neighbor is a Bonsai aficionado and starts a few every year from acorns. There is some preparation/treatment before sowing and I’m sure special incubation conditions, but he gets a few sprouts each time. I have no idea how many he starts with however.
P.S. He has small oak trees all over his place from unsold trees.
Maybe it would be easier to just keep an eye out for newly sprouted little trees in the spring and then move and nurture them where I want them. These trees are growing all around but are too big to easily transplant by the time I notice them. I am working with about 2.5 acres of land that was once cleared but is now being allowed to grow wild. When I find a new evergreen type tree I clear around it to keep other vines and trees from choking/shading them out. The ground is all clay with a thin layer of topsoil and digging by hand is really a chore so transplanting a tree with much of a root system be a big project.
Thanks for all the replies.
Does anyone else want to read the title as ‘If I dig a shallow grave…’?
I lived in a house that was surrounded by Douglas fir trees. If I didn’t get to the gutters and clean them every few months, I would have dozens of little trees growing. I once found a 6 inch tall Japanese maple growing in my gutter. I transplanted it to a pot. 3 years later it was about 2 feet tall. A customer at a garage sale saw it and really wanted it. She offered $50 and I took it.
Sweeping off our roofs every few months saves lugging the damn lawn mower up there … you do NOT want Douglas firs trees growing on your roof, at 100 foot they’re still babies but still a bit too much weight for your typical roof framing …
I have one data-point to relate: when my late BIL was a little kid he “planted” a buckeye nut near their back porch. Forty-five years later my now-late MIL had to have us cut down the tree that resulted. Sometimes things happen and things grow.
A few years ago on a kayak trip I saw a huge, majestic oak tree. The acorns on the ground around the tree were like baseballs. So, I gathered a couple dozen acorns and brought them home with me.
Germination required stratification (storing them in the refrigerator/freezer a while, then planting them). Out of my original two dozen acorns, only a few germinated. Only one acorn sprouted and grew. I nurtured it through its first year, then a chipmunk chewed through the base right in front of our eyes.
We used to have two large oak trees in our yard and every five years or so they would drop many thousands of acorns. I raked up as many acorns as I could (hundreds of pounds of them) but some would elude me because they were embedded in the soil. The next spring I would have to remove dozens of sprouted acorns. I would gently pull on the sprout and the acorn would often come up with it.
I’ve got hundreds of one-inch pines growing from seeds up at Tahoe. Most don’t make it very long because they are in bad spots. But there are a couple that have taken over the years.
Its tough, though.
Most states have a forestry division which will sell you seedlings. When my family had a Christmas tree plantation we bought several thousand from the state at good prices.