GROWING CONIFERS FROM SEED

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In nature, stratification occurs outdoors over the course of the winter, but it can also be brought about artificially in a refrigerator. Furthermore, the process is quite simple. Just soak the kernels in water for 12 to 24 hours ... drain them .. . and layer them, in a jar or plastic tub, with slightly damp peat moss or vermiculite, before refrigerating the containers for one to four months (they'll need a temperature that's below 45°F but above freezing). As indicated in the accompanying chart, some conifer seeds don't require stratification if planted fresh. However, older nodules will always benefit from exposure to a cold season, either natural or artificial.

While you can simply plant your stratified seeds in the ground outdoors, as happens in the wild, the low success rate which generally rewards that method provides a good argument for coddling your plants. And to do so, you'll need wooden flats — measuring about 18 inches square and 2 to 3 inches deep — and a special bedding medium. Moist milled sphagnum moss, or equal parts of damp peat moss and vermiculite, or peat moss and perlite (all of which are available from most nurseries) will serve the purpose. And because they're soilless, these planting media are free of the fungi that cause "damping off" . . . a sudden fatal collapse of seedlings that's caused by earth-borne disease.

The seeds should be shallowly sown an inch or two apart in a grid pattern in the flats, and the bed kept moist but not wet. (As an alternative, you can plant each of your trees-to-be in a small pot, or in a plastic foam cup with a hole in the bottom.)

After a few weeks — if you've been careful and just a little lucky — tender green needles will begin to push above the planting medium's surface. (In my opinion, this is a singularly beautiful and exciting moment!) Allow the shoots to straighten and begin sending out new needles, then start them on a diet of halfstrength liquid organic food (try diluted fish emulsion). The new plants should be nurtured carefully and kept in a sunny, protected spot . . . in a greenhouse, beneath a tree, or under a lath or fabric shade structure (which might be no more than an old piece of bed sheet stretched on a wooden frame and suspended two feet above the flats).

When the seedlings begin to crowd one another in their containers, it's time to transplant them . . . either to a temporary nursery bed or to large pots. (I use one-gallon metal cans discarded by a local school cafeteria, simply cleaning the receptacles and punching four drainage holes in each can's bottom.) Because it's important not to disturb the plants' roots any more than necessary, I suggest that you carefully cut the growing medium between the seedlings with a spatula or putty knife before lifting out the individual treelets. When you replant them, set the little evergreens in the earth to the same depth at which they were previously growing.

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