Planting dogwood seeds?
- Thread starter ruskbucks
- Start date
cavey
5 year old buck +
It cant hurt, but I wonder if they have to pass through a bird or mammals digestive track first for better germination? Some berries/seeds are better sown/scattered that way by nature. Cuttings and cutting transplants just give you an edge and likely a higher success rate. By the lack a replies I would guess the general answer is no. I would think the effort would be like tossing out mini snacks for the critters. But I think many of us grab and strip seed from plants as we walk... I have, just not dogwood seeds.
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cavey
5 year old buck +
You might wanna try a seed tray and or an area in the garden ... could even just try planter box. I have a cutting bed I made filled with sand that I rooted out a mess of red osier cuttings in that would work too. It would be an experiment as I still feel cuttings are so much easier.
g squared 23
5 year old buck +
I’d like to try this as I have had piss poor luck with cuttings.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Chainsaw
5 year old buck +
Seeds planted in jugs(planting medium in gallon water jugs) and tossed out into the snow banks from January thru March have been the best seed sprouting/ growing system for me so far. I've used that system for starting daylilies and apple seeds outdoors. Tried it with sumac-no germination. Have not tried it with dogwood.
Tickrancher
Yearling... With promise
If you are determined to grow dogwood from seed, below is information from an old MDC publication that might help.
Shrub Species Grown at the George O. White Nursery___________________
Dogwood (Cornus spp.)
We grow five species of dogwood, including flowering (C. florida), roughleaf (C. drummondii), red-osier (Cornus sericea), gray
(C. racemosa), and silky (C. oblique) dogwood. The dogwoods are the first seeds we sow in the fall, with a target planting date
of October 1 if possible. Over the years, we have also found that dogwood seeds store very well. Last year we sowed the last
of our 1988 collection of flowering dogwood seeds and we were still getting very good germination and seedling growth. The
reason that we still had 1988 seed available is that I rarely plant all seeds from one source and year. I sow seeds like this with
nearly every species we grow, for both large trees and shrubs. We may plant 100 lb (45 kg) of flowering dogwood seeds in a year,
and these seeds will come from three to five sources from at least that many different years. Much of our flowering dogwood
is locally collected, so the source may be local, but the year collected is different. This helps to avoid total disasters.
Flowering Dogwood—Flowering dogwood is the hardest of the dogwoods to grow, and the seeds are the most expensive.
We get more complaints when we are sold out of this species than about anything else we grow, and we get more complaints
about survival. The seedlings store and outplant poorly. During the growing season, this species is the slowest growing of the
dogwoods, and powdery mildew is a constant problem. About 200 lb (91 kg) of nitrogen (N) are applied each summer to get the
seedlings to 12 in (30 cm) or greater in size, and we treat seedlings with fungicide on a 7- to 10-day schedule. But we sell over
100,000 every year—year in year out—so we keep growing it!
Gray Dogwood—Gray dogwood is not nearly as difficult to grow or handle as flowering dogwood. We have found that it
likewise takes about 200 lb (91 kg) of N per year to get them to 12 in (30 cm) in height. They are faster growing than flowering
dogwood, but not by much. We spray them on the same fungicide schedule as flowering dogwood, but I am not so sure that it
is necessary.
Roughleaf, Red-Osier, and Silky Dogwood—The other three dogwoods are very different than growing flowering and
gray dogwood. These require less than half the nitrogen (N), and all three of these dogwoods usually reach 24 to 36 in (61 to
91 cm) in height with little effort. In addition, they do not require as much or any fungicide as flowering or gray dogwood. All
three species store very well for months in cold storage, and we almost never have any complaints about survival.
Shrub Species Grown at the George O. White Nursery___________________
Dogwood (Cornus spp.)
We grow five species of dogwood, including flowering (C. florida), roughleaf (C. drummondii), red-osier (Cornus sericea), gray
(C. racemosa), and silky (C. oblique) dogwood. The dogwoods are the first seeds we sow in the fall, with a target planting date
of October 1 if possible. Over the years, we have also found that dogwood seeds store very well. Last year we sowed the last
of our 1988 collection of flowering dogwood seeds and we were still getting very good germination and seedling growth. The
reason that we still had 1988 seed available is that I rarely plant all seeds from one source and year. I sow seeds like this with
nearly every species we grow, for both large trees and shrubs. We may plant 100 lb (45 kg) of flowering dogwood seeds in a year,
and these seeds will come from three to five sources from at least that many different years. Much of our flowering dogwood
is locally collected, so the source may be local, but the year collected is different. This helps to avoid total disasters.
Flowering Dogwood—Flowering dogwood is the hardest of the dogwoods to grow, and the seeds are the most expensive.
We get more complaints when we are sold out of this species than about anything else we grow, and we get more complaints
about survival. The seedlings store and outplant poorly. During the growing season, this species is the slowest growing of the
dogwoods, and powdery mildew is a constant problem. About 200 lb (91 kg) of nitrogen (N) are applied each summer to get the
seedlings to 12 in (30 cm) or greater in size, and we treat seedlings with fungicide on a 7- to 10-day schedule. But we sell over
100,000 every year—year in year out—so we keep growing it!
Gray Dogwood—Gray dogwood is not nearly as difficult to grow or handle as flowering dogwood. We have found that it
likewise takes about 200 lb (91 kg) of N per year to get them to 12 in (30 cm) in height. They are faster growing than flowering
dogwood, but not by much. We spray them on the same fungicide schedule as flowering dogwood, but I am not so sure that it
is necessary.
Roughleaf, Red-Osier, and Silky Dogwood—The other three dogwoods are very different than growing flowering and
gray dogwood. These require less than half the nitrogen (N), and all three of these dogwoods usually reach 24 to 36 in (61 to
91 cm) in height with little effort. In addition, they do not require as much or any fungicide as flowering or gray dogwood. All
three species store very well for months in cold storage, and we almost never have any complaints about survival.
