Great video, thank you. I do similar to you but much smaller scale - old biscuit tins with holes drilled in the lid and base. Being metal, they're proof against mice and squirrels - I leave them in a dark corner outside over winter. We're in Scotland, so it probably doesn't get quite as cold as you might get, and also I reckon that lying on the ground outside is what tree seeds do in nature anyway.
We might think you’re a pro at farming. We got valuable ideas from your video and we’re going to share your channel with our customers who want to start a farm. Thanks for creating this!
New to your channel but I love everything I see. Keep up the videos and keep the grow going. Especially loved the American Persimmon vid. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
OOooo, That last comment, as opposed to nit-picking, this is pure curiosity, got me thinking about oceanic mammals. Land mammals for sure have the ability to store/harvest seed in one way or another, but I am unfamiliar with how ocean dwelling mammals garden within their landscape... and of course, everything gardens.
Very very cool, and thank you for the tips about mold, that's great to know that it isn't a terrible thing. The mixture sounds really good too. I end up with a lot of firepit ash and char that I could mix in with any number of different wood materials. I have heard a local furniture store has sawdust available for like a buck a box, I need to look into that further too. Very good stuff, thanks for sharing!
I'm too lazy to do that. I plant hazel, butternut, oak nuts in a trench. Role chicken wire over the row to keep the squirrels out. Let the winter do it's magic. In the spring up they come. Usually they stay in the row for two years then off to their permanent home.
'The trees are asking us to store their seeds!' - Sean So true, yet the trees ask this not merely for their sake but for the glory and sake of the Creator, their true Designer. If only human beings also lived for the sake of the Creator... "Verily, not for the sake of the beings are the beings dear but the beings are dear for the sake of the Self (the great I AM). - Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4
Awesome! I grew hazels and other nuts using hole-ey buckets buried under mulch outside, grown in sets of 1x2' air prune beds covered. Worked great, lots of trees with minimal inputs! I am stratifying a big batch of different fruit seeds now the same way. Could you share methods on where to go find nuts for hazels and other trees? Finding local ones is best, following squirrels and whatnot. Are there any shops you know that offer'em, would you sell nuts for propagation?
Robbie is a super great example of the value in getting into this... You had great success early on with your attempts at growing and had enough plants to be able to sell some, plant some, trade some and donate a bunch... So glad you are doing this Robbie! I will try to make a video sharing notes on how/where we collected and sourced seeds from the various types we work with.
PET THE DAMN CAT IT'S CRYING IS BREAKING MY HEART But anyway, is there any danger in opening those creates in a root cellar if they're likely containing mould? Especially if you're then agitating it, could spores be being thrown up in to the air and on to exposed food?
I guess that could be a concern around mold, but it isn't piles of dry/dusty mold. I didn't see anything come off it at all... Don't worry, our cats get a stupid amount of attention most of the time. Kaye in this video just cries all the time!
Very inspirational, I've had a lotta issues with mold in the past with the refrigerator method. This year has been the most successful using sand and peat instead of just plastic/water, but I will ABSOLUTELY be doing something like this for next year. I was always paranoid that mold would basically immediately ruin my seeds and it's very encouraging to hear the opposite as long as you intervene in some very simple ways. How rough is a freeze on the seeds in general? Is that something very abusive to them or is it more so just a stresser and the less it happens the better? Your last statement about the possible impact and spread of what you have there is VERY exciting and encouraging, there can be such an abundance if we all just did a fraction of this
Thanks for the kind words... Freezing on seeds... Probably WAY less of an issue than I worry it will be. I'm sure some seeds are more sensitive than others (paw paws seem really sensitive). I'd try to avoid it but if it happens definitely still plan to try to grow them! Yeah, mold isn't a big deal, intervene when you find it and move forward. If it keeps coming over and over you need to assess whats going on that promotes it and adjust, but definitely no need to scrap everything...
What do you do with hazelnuts in the spring that has not cracked their shells? Do you treat them in any way? Discard them? Or just plant them anyway? And if you in fall collect 100 hazelnuts - how many of them do you expect will turn into a tree?
Another very instructive video, thanks! But I do wonder why you don't store your seeds dry. It seems to me they usually do fine that way, and they're kinda designed for it...?
All the seeds mentioned in this video (chestnut, hazelnut, paw paw, persimmon, peach, etc...) if stored dry can lose their viability incredibly fast. Seed vendors that sell these seeds dry end up making folks feel growing trees from seed is hard because they have very low viability. Certainly many tree seeds can be stored dried, but most want cool/moist stratification for good success.
I'm wondering about the issue of the seeds freezing. I put seeds in damp medium in buckets with holes in the bottoms and lids but did not bury them. I figured seeds in nature freeze on top of the soil or barely covered. Are you aware of poor viability rates when allowing the seeds to freeze in buckets that aren't buried?
Depends on the seeds, but if you think about say nut seeds, most of the time they are buried by creatures nice and deep in the soil in the fall. I would at least cover the buckets with woodchips on all sides...
Do you know if there is any difference between types of sawdust? We have a small sawmill on our farm and we’ve been sawing a lot of pine trees. Could it become a problem with all the turpentine in the sawdust or the oil from the chain? Or is the shell of the nuts good enough to protect the seeds?
I can't say for sure... I would think pure fresh pine sawdust would be something to be a little careful with... Perhaps you want to leave it out in contact with soil for a year so it can grow some mushroom and soil life before using this way.
@EdibleAcres Sean, I have a general question having viewed your many videos. You obviously put great store in building raised beds by adding a variety of natural materials over time to the beds. Is that a specific strategy for a wettish climate, or do you recommend this style regardless of climate? I live in southern Australia, and it is dry... we frequently have droughts for many months of the year with little to no rainfall. Is the raised bed strategy still valid in this kind of climate? Thanks for your help. Cheers Alec
Hey. I'm not sure how much help it might be but the channel Self Sufficient Me is based in Australia (admittedly, it's a huge place and I'm not 100% where SSM is located) and he uses galvanized raised beds filled hugelmound style to great effect. There's definitely a few videos on his bed system that might be helpful.
@@howardyanow2883 thanks, I do subscribe to SSM, but he lives in Queensland, about 2000km north of me (yes, Aus is a big place!). He is in the tropics! 90% sure he would get tropical rain, and is therefore wet (certainly compared to me). I was more wondering from a permaculture principle perspective... SSM is not really Permie.
it’s my understanding that hugel style raised beds do work well for dry climates. Mulch would be your friend. You may want to do larger raised beds though and it may take them a little longer to be self watering but it will happen. You could also do hugel pit style beds instead of raised, that may work a little better than a mound style.
@@arlisswirtanen7794 thank you, good advice. I have just started doing some hugel raised beds, but they are still very young and are going to take a while to establish. Your point on making the beds non-raised is what I was thinking about, kind of protecting the existing moisture by not being raised. But digging down to ensure the depth of good organic matter and making them hugel beds, I had not thought of. Interesting thoughts.
I think more than anything else, the focus could/should be on deep woody mulches. Wood chips available nearby? Sawdust? Also, what kind of perennial herbaceous plants can you establish that 1) spread and crawl and cover the earth and others that 2) have super deep roots and broad leaves. That combo used extensively will help hold surface moisture and also 'mine' for nutrients and humidity down in the earth and bring it up where the plants can use it.
We connected with a local cabinet shop and get some from there, and we ordered a huge pile from a firewood processing place 2 years ago that we're still working with... Lots of options, definitely can be wood chips.
i had roughly 80 individual nuts out of 7 gallons sprout. I couldnt bring myself to toss them out. They look like Am. chestnut, dont know if the parent trees will be there next year.
No formalized rule for this, but I would bring a watering can with a rose water head down into the root cellar to add a bit of moisture when needed in a gentle and spread out way
Wood chips, sifted through a screen if they are super coarse, ground up leaves, shredded straw, healthy/balanced garden soil, soil from the forest nearby... So many options.
Dried paw paw are absolutely dead... They can dry out in a day! try twisted-tree.net or perfectcircle.farm for seed... If you can't find good living seed, shoot me an email and we can figure something out sean @ edibleacres.org
We haven't gone into the realm of selling tree seeds yet, but we may have WAY more than we can plant in the spring so it may be an option... twisted-tree.net perfectcircle.farm two friends of ours that sell tree seeds... (including paw paw)
