Fonz's Black Pine contest entry

[Fonz]

Ordered 25 seeds from http://seedrack.com/bonsai.html
Let's see if they arrive and later on will germinate.

 

[Fonz]

My first 25 seeds arrived. This one came from seedrack.com
It seemed 25 seeds wasn't that much to begin with so I ordered another 50 from treeseeds.com over the weekend, still waiting on that one. Will stratify/plant them seperately to see if there's a difference.

 

[Fonz]

Ok, next batch arrived. This one came from TreeSeeds.com. I ordered 50 seeds but got a bag with 700-800 seeds it seems. I guess the guys over at treeseeds.com are getting tired of counting all those JBP seeds we are ordering for the contest

This is what was in the enveloppe:


I started counting them. Got to 100 (what's in the bag) and then gave up. F*cking A!

 

[theone420]

they were pretty strict with me. I ordered 50 and I got 50. some small ones too. yours look good

 

[theone420]

sorry for that last comment. I thought it was weird that I got the card that said free tree seeds but no extra seeds so I checked my bag again and I was given a lot of extra Japanese persimmon seeds(ordered 25 seeds got about 60). so they do give extra seeds which is cool.

 

[Fonz]

The DHL guy just dropped of a bunch of growing stuff in a torn up box. 3 big trays, 10 seed trays and some germination soil for the pine contest. The 10 little trays should be able to hold around 180 seedlings so I guess that's the amount I'm aiming at. The rest of the pots is for other 2018 growing projects.
What I could do is drill a bunch of holes in 1 or 2 of the big trays (60cm x 60cm or 23.6" x 23.6") and use them as seed trays...

 

[Fonz]

Ok, all my seeds have arrived.
I also ordered 1g from treeseedonline.com (approx 50 seeds) and another 25 seeds from a Thai ebay seller called pandoragarden.
The ebay seller sent me 100+ seeds instead of 25.
So all orders combined I ordered 150 seeds but ended up with 1000+. I hope in 6 years at least 1 presentable tree will have grown from them

 

[Fonz]

Ok, not going to post every move I make in this contest but this is the start of my project.

First batch of seeds are soaking in water, next batch will start in 1 month or so.
First batch consists of:

25 seeds from seedrack.com
75 seeds from treeseedonline.com
150 seeds from ebay seller pandoragarden

I'll put the ones that sank in the fridge in 48 hours.

 

[Fonz]

Ok, 48 hours later most of the seeds have sunk.

1. seedrack.com - 0 out of 25 floated (100% sinking ratio)
2. treeseedonline.com - 8 out of 75 floated (89% sinking ratio)
3. eBay seller pandoragarden - 10 out of 150 floated (93% sinking ratio)



I was planning on putting them in potting soil in the fridge but considering on how much a hassle it would be to get them all out in 2 months I decided to use the damp paper towel method. Notice the beautiful placemat I confiscated from my kids



Next step: putting the double folded paper towel in a labelled plastic bag in the fridge.



If all goes well, see you in 2 months!

 

[Gustavo Martins]

that's quite an empty fridge no beer in it?

 

[Fonz]

that's quite an empty fridge no beer in it?

That's my spare fridge in the garage, in the summer it's filled with beer, in the winter with tree seeds

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Pandoragarden I ordered 100. I received 501 (!). My failure rate was 4.8% on the float test, so we got close to the same results.

 

[Fonz]

Ok, just finished putting my last batch into the fridge.

150 seeds from TreeSeeds.com -> 1 floater (I did hand pick the 150 biggest in the 800+ seed batch, I put the remaining 650 in water too, only 3 of them floated so pretty good sinking ratio )
40 Mikawa seeds from BonsaiPlaza.com -> 2 floaters (when you order from them make sure to pick the option where they send seeds in a package and not by regular mail. I chose the last option and got 50 seeds, 10 of them got crushed completely. From the other 40 I'm guessing at least half of them got a severe poundng too so lets hope for a 50% geremination ratio...)




This is how my spare fridge looks like now. 10 bags of which 5 are for the 6 year JBP contest. I might have overdone it this year...

 

[Fonz]

Ok, 60 days after I put my first batch in the fridge it's now time to sow them.

Ofcourse I made another silly blog post about how I put seeds in some soil: https://shumibonsai.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/japanese-black-pine-from-seed-2018-sowing-the-seeds/

Since last night there was some snow it's better to keep the trays indoors for some more weeks. Temperatures should go up to 12°C/54°F as of today but still...

Seeds out of the fridge
24 from seedrack.com
70 from treeseedonline.com
139 from eBay seller pandoragarden


Seeds in the ground:

 

[Clicio]

Thanks for showing us the whole process!

 

[Fonz]

Almost a month after sowing the first seeds are popping up. First lesson learned: early march is too soon to sow stuff here in Belgium

 

[Fonz]

Anyone wants to buy my double trunk Japanese Black Pine? $6000

(since this is my first time sowing pine seeds... does this happen a lot? I mean the 2 "trunks" from 1 seed)

 

[Fonz]

Pandoragarden I ordered 100. I received 501 (!). My failure rate was 4.8% on the float test, so we got close to the same results.

@Bonsai Nut how are your pandoragarden seeds doing? Mine aren't doing much...

 

[keri-wms]

That double one is freaky. In human terms I reckon that makes them twins?!

 

[Fonz]

That double one is freaky. In human terms I reckon that makes them twins?!

The seed shell is gone now, 2 seperate seedlings from 1 seed. Identical twins!