Help with Silver Birch seeds (for my wife)

kompik

So, I was chatting with my wife about trying to take some hardwood cuttings off of our silver birches growing in the yard this summer when she mentioned that she had collected seeds from those trees last fall and wanted my help getting them to grow.

Oh, yeah, sure Honey. (Just 'cause I have a stack of bonsai books doesn't make me an expert.)

I've never propagated anything from seed before, but we have hundreds of seeds to experiment with, so we're bound to find something that works. Unfortunately everything I read gives conflicting information. One books says to mix the seeds with damp vermiculite and refrigerate for an unspecified amount of time, another says to just keep them dry, and still another says to throw them in the freezer for 2-4 weeks. One author says to plant them early in the year, another outside in the fall.

So, I'm looking for advice from anyone who's grown birch trees from seeds before.

1. How do I prep the seeds. Do they need to be frozen, damp and chilled, or dried? (So far they've been kept in a 50-degree greenhouse since last fall.)

2. When is the best time to plant them? Are there other times that could work almost as well?

3. What do I plant them in? How deep of a seed tray, what kind of soil, and what kind of lighting? [Note: out in the ground is not a great option for us...we don't have much space, most of what we do have is under a canopy of trees, and the soil is mostly clay (probably why none of our birch trees have seedlings growing up around them).]

4. Any special feeding required? I'm especially concerned about getting the little guys ready for their first winter.

The upshot here is that maybe if I can get some birches growing for here I can keep one or two for myself to start training. =)

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