I have several maple trees in my yard. They are silver maple and sugar maple. Every year, the seeds fall from the silver maples and they sprout everywhere. The seeds from the sugar maples never sprout. I have 3 and a neighbor has 2. Why?
I live on the edge of the prairie. I dug the sugar maples 3 mi. from here along the river. Timber along the river is oak hickory and the sugar maples form an understory only. They are not dominant but they reproduce. Why do they reproduce at the river but not at my house? Gary
Would like to know
@SwampDonkey (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1009) @WDH (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370)
The only thing that makes sense to me is that the sugar maple is not getting pollinated correctly and the seeds are not viable. On a single tree, the male and female flowers do not mature at the same time so that the tree cannot self pollinate. Maybe there is not a suitable tree in close enough proximity, with pollen at the critical time, for the fertile female flowers to produce viable seeds.
Sounds like what WDH said and remember one of them seeds on the double samara is a dud to begin with. I have a single sugar maple in the yard, and it has good seed. This spring the bare patches of ground near the tree where I removed stumps has seed germinating all over. But I live in sugar maple country with other maples at the back of the lot and most every treed ridge around here covered in them. Pollen far and wide. ;)
Thanks for the comments.
Okay, here's another one. Pine trees. They grow pretty well here. I have white, Austrian, blue and Norway spruce, and ERC. Only the ERC will reproduce. The others never drop seeds that sprout. Not just in my yard, but everywhere here in Cen. IL. Is it the soil? It puzzles me why they grow fine but the seeds won't germinate naturally. Gary
Do you have walnut trees growing in the mix?
Maybe soil moisture and surface litter?
I have similar curiosity here with pine. A solitary pine tree (or small clump) planted here is lucky to survive ten years of pretty slow growth. A few make it, but still end up as spindly looking. (This is based on observations from several counties surrounding mine, not just my place.)
I figured if pines can grow out of rocks, they ought to do okay here. :) Nope, just ERC. The only healthy pines I've seen in surrounding counties has been north of the MO river at the Missouri U Agroforestry center, but they basically made a forest for pine needle production.
I've heard that it may go beyond soil composition and pH but could also depend on resident fungal colonies. Sometimes adding a scoop of soil native from where the tree started can inoculate things...
Quote from: ToddsPoint on June 04, 2018, 05:30:25 AM
Thanks for the comments.
Okay, here's another one. Pine trees. They grow pretty well here. I have white, Austrian, blue and Norway spruce, and ERC. Only the ERC will reproduce. The others never drop seeds that sprout. Not just in my yard, but everywhere here in Cen. IL. Is it the soil? It puzzles me why they grow fine but the seeds won't germinate naturally. Gary
The trees are not mature enough probably. In plantations of planted spruce, it will be a few years before they are viable seed. I have millions of cones on black spruce plantation that the squirrels eat all winter in piles. I've never seen one spruce germinate, I know they can't eat them all and probably very wasteful eating habits. ;) I mean after 20 years, every one of them I see out there is planted. I have lots of seeded natural white spruce. When we scarified, them bare spots germinated lots of white spruce. :D In all the Maritimes (3 provinces on east coast) here in Canada, the New Brunswick black spruce did the best in provenance tests across the region. We have 3 native spruce around here and they all grow on my lot, except the darn hares really hammer red spruce and white spruce. They look pretty messed up when a hare takes a liking to them. :D
Pine won't grow on prairie soils with the higher pH.
Quote from: Jeff on June 04, 2018, 07:28:54 AM
Do you have walnut trees growing in the mix?
Walnut trees grow like weeds here. My woods is full of them. Probably the most prolific tree on my land but none growing in my yard near my pine trees.
So I guess my soil is not acidic enough. Thanks for the info. Gary