Growing Natives From Seed

by Greg Ellis

A Seedy Background

For a little background of how I have been able to fully express my seed hoarding, here is my story. 

I work at Liberty High School with the nonprofit, One Cool Earth, which has partnered with the school to grow native, edible, and drought tolerant plants.  Students work in the nursery, gaining horticultural skills, but also job-skills training.  Plants are sold to generate funding for the project, paying for nursery and educational materials, occasional field trips, and staff time.  The nursery receives no funding from the school.  However the school does commit a teacher and class time to assisting with the projects.  Essentially, seed hoarding has become a career option for me, as most of our nursery stock is grown from seed.  I even have the joy of teaching others about it!

Liberty High School Plant Nursery       Photo by Greg Ellis

Growing from seed has many advantages.  Seeding preserves the genetic diversity of a species, unlike cloning — the dominant method of propagation of landscaping plants which preserves a particular aesthetic trait.  In restoration, genetic diversity (and its hidden survival adaptations) is more important than plant appearance.  In this respect, seeding is a bit like playing dice — there is sometimes distinct variability in the seedlings. 

A few anomalies I have observed include albino oaks, which fail to produce chlorophyll, die after depleting their seed stores in few months. Narrow leafed coffee berry, dwarf catalina cherry, and white/black sage hybrids — I always wonder what tricks these unusual specimens conceal, apparently useless for competing in today's ecosystem, but adaptations that might be useful under special circumstances, contributing to the survival of their species.

Voodoo

Seed collecting also enables bulk propagation — I once grew more than 50 buckwheats from seed in a single one-gallon pot, eventually transplanting them to individual containers. A downside to seeding can be the difficulty of getting the seed to grow.  Seeds in the wild have figured out (through millennia of evolutionary trial and error) certain optimal conditions that promote survival.  Seeds may remain dormant until these conditions have been met.  Taken out of the wild and grown at Liberty High School's small nursery, the seeds become finicky, demanding special treatment before they'll grow.  The exact mechanisms within the seed that release it from dormancy are complex and not even fully understood (they depend on genetic and maternal factors having to do with the seed's physical and chemical makeup).  In the world of seed treatment, voodoo can be as effective as science.

Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos spp.), for example, can be notoriously difficult to germinate.  Even the best books on the subject are at a loss and disagree on the exact chemo-physical incantation that releases the seed from its slumber.  Recipes can read like Middle Age alchemic formulae:

"Collect one lb. coyote scat containing seeds from a desolate ridgetop; bury scat in moist sand and burn pine needles over them; separate seeds from mixture using screen; soak seed in concentrated sulfuric acid for 13 minutes; rinse three times with fresh water; chill seeds for two months in damp soil; plant in leaf litter collected under a manzanita on a desolate ridgetop."

Butterfly on Milkweed    Photo by Shelley Ellis

These procedures, along with recommendations of crushing, boiling, drying, soaking, chilling, and frying — as superstitious as they sound — actually have a some scientific basis.  Coyotes do eat manzanita seeds for their apple-sweet seed coat (manzanita is Spanish for little apple), and certain acids in the coyote digestive tract could trigger germination.  Manazanita grows in chaparral, a fire-adapted ecosystem where many plants depend on fire to cause germination, either through some mechanism of the heat, through the alkalinity of the ash, or possibly through nutrient release.  But, even after exhaustive treatments are applied, results aren't always guaranteed — viability of seeds can vary year to year based on temperature and rainfall.  Then there is always the risk of over-treating seeds, losing them to the coyote's teeth, the fire, the acid, or fungal rot.

My favorite, slightly modernized formula to treat manzanita seed is to have a class barbeque, grilling over buried seed.

Fortunately not all seeds are difficult to germinate in nursery conditions.  Blue oak (Quercus douglasii) has been known to germinate while still on the tree.  They adapted in arid climates to take advantage of even the slightest breath of moisture.  Sage (Salvia spp.) and milkweed (Aesclepias spp.) make up for lower germination rates with sheer abundance of seed material.

Landscape Like a Squirrel

While growing from seed may seem obscure and exclusive to the nursery, this is changing.  A few groups are realizing that plants do it in nature all the time, albeit sometimes with the help of squirrels and jays. 

The nonprofit I work with traditionally grows oaks in pots and gives them away.  We have recently moved on to encouraging individuals to collect their own acorns and plant them directly in the ground where they wish to grow an oak.  The difference in performance between transplanted, potted oaks and these direct seeded oaks is amazing!  Not only do the direct seeded oaks require less water, they show more rapid growth than the transplants. 

There are a few secrets that help with establishment.  First, the acorn is best planted laid on its side — the roots and stem emerge from the tip and go opposite directions.  They shouldn't be buried more than an inch.  A ring of mulch around the acorn three feet in diameter will help retain moisture and decrease competition from weeds.  The seedlings can be watered once/month deeply with a 2.5 gallon water jug, its spigot left to drip.  Growing seeds in the ground allows roots to spread out and go deep, critical in our mediterranean climate.  This technique can be attempted with any native — simply collect seed, plant in the fall of the year, mulch around it, give a little extra water, and see what happens.

Seed Library

If you are interested in finding more out about seed — native, vegetable, grain, or otherwise — join the newly started monthly seed saver meeting.  A group of seed enthusiasts and novices, lead by local grain grower and award winning farmer John DeRosier, will meet at the SLO Grange Wednesday November 14th, 2012 from 6 - 8 pm to discuss the creation of a local seed library.