Pinus sibirica seeds (Siberian Stone Pinenut or Russian Cedar)

Description

 CANADA ORDERS ONLY.    Hardiest of the nut pines surviving in temps to -60C. Beauty, food and medicine in its form, nuts & health giving anti-scorbutic resin. Dark green needles in bundles of 5. Somewhat similar to P. cembra at first glance, but this has bigger cones, sweeter nuts & more resin. A long lived Russian treasure. Resistant to white pine blister rust. Fast growing after 2nd year. Prefers wet cold soils and full sun. Can start producing nut bearing cones in 5-6 years. Self fertile

• Seed Count: 15-20
• Collection Date:  March 2021
• Hardiness Zone: 2-9
• Height and Width: 20m x 8m
• Germination test type: cut; actual
• Family: Pinaceae

How to germinate Pinus sibirica seeds:

Soak seed 24 hours. Sow in a baggie (my preferred method for pretty much everything we sprout) containing equal mix of moist sand and peat. Warm stratify 60 days then give 90* days of cold stratification. Germinates promptly when given 15-20C. Either sow fully stratified seed or continue with the baggie and prick out and transplant the kids. Hard seed coat, so you might feel the need to scarify prior to treatment.

*NOTE: Our germination trials using Skookum Grow seed soak solution have shown that after a 24 hour soak and 30 days cold stratification then given warm stratification (25-28C) will start to germinate in 30 days. We started seed Feb 7^th with fine screened moist bark mulch as stratification medium. They were sprouting April 7.  Reducing germination treatment time to 1/3, thus giving more time during the growing season for larger plants going into the next. Transplant when root has fully emerged as those in the “button” stage have high root emersion failure.