tree planting: collecting seeds

Intro

How To:

Getting Seed

Getting Trees

Your Own Nursery

Finding Places

What to Plant

Planting

Aftercare

Photos + Images:

Planting (n/a)
Care + maintenance
Some results

Inspiration:
Manifesto of the Phantom Treeplanters

The Man who Planted Trees

More in yer face Direct action

a tree nursery

A Tree nursery is just a place where young trees can spend the first year or two of their lives in relative safety so they can be planted out and stand at least some chance of surviving. There isn't much to learn in order to set one up. Making a tree would be a task way beyond the capabilities of all the universities, factories, research and military facilities on earth combined (not that they ever would). Fortunately, tree seeds contain all the knowledge and abilities to do this with just a few readily available and free materials, so all we need to do is let them.

How you go about setting one up is entirely up to you; the following is only advice from non-professionals, but it has been successful.

where

Anywhere with a bit of shelter will do. Gardens are excellent, so are allotments. if you have access to either you can start now. If it's the wrong time of year for seeds you can start collecting the things you will need (see below), looking for places to get seeds and finding other people to work with.

how

Although there are probably ideal planting depths, soil types, temperatures and moisture levels, by the time you have learnt all these (and all the different opinions of what is right) you could have planted an entire forest. In any case, in the wild the seeds rarely encounter these conditions. All you need to do is observe what happens in nature and try to simulate the situation as best you can. You could simulate the forest floor by sprinkling a thin layer of soil on top of the seeds, as they get covered in leaves; or you may feel that your seeds could be buried, like squirrels do - it's up to you; just experiment and see for yourself what works. Let nature be your guide and you won't go far wrong.

things you will probably need

Pots: Although you can just plant them straight in the ground, pots keep them a bit less vulnerable to casual tree eaters, and they will be easier to transplant later. It will also make transplantation less traumatic for the trees. There is no need to spend loads of money on pots, things like old pop bottles will do, the big one litre type. Trees need to put their roots down a long way, and these are deeper than normal plant pots. You can stop them falling over by putting them in boxes. Remember to put drainage holes in the bottom of the pots.
Compost: You can just dig up some soil from somewhere. Trees that are seeded naturally have to make do with whatever they fall on, so it's not necessary to buy special compost, and most compost is produced in an environmentally destructive way, even if it does say 'peat free'. You can make your own compost from household waste, or go to local allotments and scrounge some. Once people know what it is for, most of them will be glad to help, and some of them will be interested in working with you, an added bonus. People on allotments are far more approachable than anywhere else in towns, so don't be afraid to try this.
Propagating trays: These are useful to put a lot of seeds in prior to actual planting. not all your seeds will germinate, and by starting them in this you can save a lot of space. As soon as a sprout gets to about an inch in height, remove it to a pot. Don't pull it out by the stem, these are usually very fragile early on; better to lift it by the leaves. there's no secret to learn here, just be gentle and try to disturb the roots as little as possible. Don't worry though, plants survive pretty harsh treatment in the wild. Propagating trays can be made from anything, old baking trays, office in/out trays - look around for anything the right size and shape and that will do (unless it's made of cardboard of course). As a last resort you could buy some.

That's about it really - some kind of spade will save you getting your fingernails impossibly dirty, and some match sticks may come in handy if, like me, you can't tell the difference between a seedling and a dandelion - just mark each seed with a match stick. Alternatively you could sterilise the compost, or buy some. Then you would need to cover it to stop seeds getting in, in this case the easiest option is to buy proper propagating trays. If you can think of a solution to this, please let us know.

main index page