How to grow spruce from seeds?

Many owners of country houses and country houses dream to grow on their land along with fruit trees, coniferous trees . There are several explanations for this. Firstly, coniferous trees make volatile substances - phytoncides, which have a harmful effect on microbes. Secondly, the New Year tree can be dressed up right on the site in front of the house, and not ruin the felled forest beauty. Thirdly, a well-groomed healthy tree pleases its decorative appearance, and for many decades will serve as a beautiful decoration of the yard. In addition, well-shaped fir-trees can create a hedge protecting from uninvited guests. In this article, we will tell you how to grow spruce from seeds.

How to plant a spruce from the seeds?

Planting spruce seeds - a method that many fans of coniferous species use. Of course, you can take a ready seedling, but very often because of root injuries and adaptation difficulties in a new place, the young tree dies. Therefore, to get a beautiful and viable spruce, it is better to grow a coniferous tree from seeds. When growing spruce from seeds, it is important to remember that because of the large amount of oil contained in them, conifer seeds quite quickly lose their germination capacity.

Collecting spruce seeds

Seeds give ripe opened fir cones. Collected in winter cones slightly dried in a warm place, so that they unfolded in the best way. Immature cones may not give viable shoots.

How to sprout the seeds of spruce?

Three methods are used for reproduction of coniferous tree species.

1. Scarification of spruce seeds. For better germination of seeds, it is possible to carry out a scarification - violation of dense seed cover. To do this, the seeds are put in a jar, previously laid out from the inside by rough nazhdachkoy, and produce intensive shaking, as a result of which the hard covers are broken. Seed so treated seeds should be immediately after the processing.
2. Stratification of spruce seeds. For germination of spruce seeds, a period of time from several months to a year is required. To accelerate the process of germination, stratification is used. Collected in late autumn or winter conifer seeds are soaked and kept for several weeks at zero temperature. You can put the seeds in large moist sand or coniferous sawdust. At the end of April, they sow in prepared substrate in pots or in open ground.
3. Snowing. Seeds are sown in wooden boxes and exposed under snow throughout the winter. In spring, the crops are placed in a moderately warm room under the film. This method can be used in the regions where winters are relatively mild and at the same time snowy.

Planting of spruce seeds

For planting soil mixture is prepared from the garden soil with the addition of peat or humus, it is strongly moistened. Seeds are treated with phytosporin (for the prevention of fungal diseases) and planted at a depth of 0.5 cm. With a deeper planting, the planting material may not ascend. It is important to maintain a constantly high soil moisture before emergence. When planting the seedlings in May or in the summer, they must be pritenit. The shading is removed only then, When the shoots become elastic, they will not sag. It is desirable to accurately weed out weeds, although weeds do not affect so destructively the growing tiny fir-trees, as on the seedlings of deciduous trees. For successful development of seedlings, the soil must be moist, but not excessively wet. 2 times a month, planting fir-tree young animals are treated with an insecticide "Enzhio" (3-4 ml per bucket of water).

Thus, it is possible to cultivate many varieties of spruce from seeds, including blue spruce, attractive for its noble appearance and unusual color of needles. For the first year in normal vegetation, the conifer should grow to 30-35 cm.