The Forestry Forum

I picked me up some of those osage oranges, I think they are full of seeds. Does anybody know how to germinate them to start some seedlings?

Must not be too hard they do it themsleves everywhere.
Practically every creek down here is lined with them.
Just curious. Why do you want to do it?

You have to macerate the fruit to get the seeds out.  OK, just so you know, the book said to "macerate" them, so don't blame me for trying to use fancy words.  Basically, you tear apart the fruit in water.  Basically mash it up (mash, now that is a good ole Southern term).  The mashed pulp should float and be easy to separate from the seeds.  Collect the seeds from the water, let them air dry for a few days, put them in a sealed container in the refigerator for 30 days, and plant them in nursery pots this spring.  That is method #1 referenced in the "Seeds of Woody Plants of the United States" manual.  The book says that if you let the fruit ferment for several months in moist storage, it is easier to macerate them.  So I would suggest that you take some newspaper, wet it good, and put the newspaper and the fruit in a sealed tupperware container.  Stick the container in a corner of a garage or other cool (unheated) space and forget about it for a couple months.  That should be the equivalent of putting the seeds in the refrigerator.  Then mash up the pulp in water and separate out the seeds after the fruit has had time to ferment a little.  Soak the seeds in water for 48 hours before planting in nursery pots, paper cups, etc. to germinate the seedlings.

Good luck!  I have never done it myself, but this is what the reference book says to do.  The book is "Seeds of Woody Plants in the United States" and is US Department of Agriculture Handbook # 450.

If you do a Google search of "osage orange" you'll find a website with lots of info about the tree and it's "fruit".  The advice given there by an old-timer was to place the hedge-apples in a barrel with water and leave them over the winter.  Come spring, mash them up in the water, then pour the slurry wherever you want the trees.  It seems that people used to plow a furrow where they wanted a hedgerow of these trees, then just poured the slop right down that trench.  By the way, this same guy is selling hedge-apples at 4 for $10, plus shipping.  Why didn't I think of that?