Magnolia time again!

If you're in the South, it's time to bring in those beautiful red berries and prepare them for sowing!

Pick the red berries out of the cones and soak them in water for about 12 hours. Then scrape them inside hardware cloth (I use an old screen from an old window, I fold it in half, stick the berries between the pieces and rub away).

Then, treat like tomatoes seeds. Fill the container with water and the good seeds sink. Pour off the bad seeds, fill with water, and pour again. Repeat until all you are left with is seeds at the bottom.

Then, put some dishwashing soap in the container and wash the seeds to remove that waxy layer that is still sticking to them.

Rinse with 5-6 washings of water (pour water out, fill back up, pour out, etc).

Then, sow them immediately! Do NOT let them dry out or they will die immediately.

Last year I "winter sowed" them and only got one seedling. This year, I'm sowing half of them fresh (half in a container of soil, the other half "paper towel method".

And, of course, I have a whole bunch of them going into the fridge (also paper towel method). These I will stratify for 5 months prior to sowing. We'll see which method works best!

Then, of course, in early 2004 I'll graft branches from the mother plant onto each seedling. Fun Fun Fun!

dave

Container so you can see how many seeds I put in this container. If I get good germination, I'll be dividing these up pretty early.

Cool idea. Might give that a try.
Why do you want to graft some of the mother plant onto the seedlings? Do we need to do that to get the tree to bloom?

Yes, I hear that many magnolias don't come true to seed, and you must graft the parent onto the seedling to produce that grandiflora. I'd love to hear otherwise!!

Have never messed w/magnolia before.
You make it sound exciting tho, dave!
Thanks.