Jesse's Celtis Reticulata from Seed - #1

[JesseKane]

Here's my start to the Celtis from seed contest. Ordered 100 seeds of Celtis Reticulata from cactusstore.com, chosen due to it's native range being close to where they will be grown. So many seeds, figured I'd take the opportunity to run a couple experiements. I'm interested in seeing first hand what we all know - that ground planting will develop much faster than any other method. I'm also interested in comparing nursury container vs collander vs wooden grow box. We'll see how things develop, but at the moment I think I'll shoot for transitioning into branch developement once the trunk size reaches an inch or so with a final size goal of less than 18inches tall.

First step is to soak them for 24hr before starting cold stratification. 16 out of the 100 seeds failed the float test, so yield is now down to no more than 84%.

 

[JesseKane]

Looks like the float test last night may have not been a good indicator. Overnight I saw another seed float to the top, but then after rubbing the now moistened fruit flesh off the seed it sunk right back down to the bottom. I'm thinking the dried skin and flesh of the fruit throws off the float viability test and might be best performed after stripping this flesh off. This resource mentions that the pulp can be stripped at storage time or after stratification, but must be removed before planting. I'll probably clean them tonight before they go in the fridge so I can screen for any damaged seeds. Here's a picture of the full fruit vs the cleaned seed that now sinks:

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Your cleaned seed appears much more similar to the seeds I received from Sheffields.

 

[JesseKane]

Got to cleanin' them seeds tonight! A lot of pinching, squeezing, rubbing, and with sticky fingers I got them all stripped of fruit pulp. I'm guessing that these were sun dried after harvest compared to removal of the fruit flesh before storage. I wonder if that's what Sheffields does instead.

Nice looking Celtis Tea that I didn't have the courage to taste, seeds before and after the clean. The fruit flesh smelled pretty good and reminded me of fig.


I noticed a fair amount of variability in shape and color so decided to sort them and see if there is correlation to germination.
The left pile are the larger and more consistently colored, the middle pile being either smaller or darker in color, with the few on the right having what I suspect is visible insect damage.

And a close-up of a possibly insect damaged seed. Hard to tell in the image but you can see the discoloration continue into the center of the seed, reminding me of a healed over pinhole. We'll see if they germinate!

After a bit of research I decided to stratify in damp sand. Went with that material mostly because it's what I had on hand (or laying out in the yard under snow, rather).

Enjoy your chilly, sandy nap little seeds and I'll see you in the spring!

 

[JesseKane]

It's been 72 days since I tucked the seeds into the fridge for cold stratification. Guides list 60 days as a minimum, so my impatience has gotten the best of me! I sowed 30ish seeds into a seed starting mix and stuck them under a grow light with some bottom heat. I mixed some black lava fines with the seed starting mix as the ingredients weren't listed on the bag and it turns out it didn't have any aggregate at all. Here's hoping that it doesn't compact and stay too moist until I can separate out the germinated seedlings. Also started some tomato and pepper seeds, but I don't think those will bonsai very well.

The celtis seeds are on the left sown in a grid about an inch apart, veggies on the right in the cardboard cells.


Put a bit of pink foam left over from building a heat bed to keep airflow from stealing heat from the tiny seed starting mat.


And now our guest bedroom window has an eerie pink glow leaking from under the door and out the window!


I left about 2/3 of my seeds stratifying, if I don't see any movement from these guys in the next few weeks I have some backup. I only sowed seeds from my group of "good" seeds from when I sorted and removed the flesh in January.

 

[JesseKane]

Turns out adding that layer of insulation was a BAD idea, at least without a thermostat to control the heat pad. Checked this morning and the tray was very hot to the touch and the pad even melted the pink foam a bit.



Here's hoping that I didn't just sterilize all my seeds! The soil wasn't nearly as hot so I'm hopeful that they are still OK. I'm going to monitor the temps with one of my remote probes with the foam removed to make sure it's not getting above about 90F.