Trees for a good cause

Over in the Trees and Shrubs forum Equilibrium has a thought about helping to replace the trees that were lost by having some of us start seedling of trees up here to be sent down when they're ready.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/576405/

Gosh, thank you Stacy. I'm sure liveoaklady will be very appreciative.

I found southern Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) seed to purchase here-
http://www.sheffields.com/

I ordered seed already to help the lady. It was under $3 for a pack. I picked up some SOLO cups from WalMart and heated up the tines of a big fork over my stove to poke drain holes in the bottoms of the cups.

I just started poking them in the bottoms of the cups for drainage and it was actually a lot faster than drilling holes. You don't need to be perfect but you do need drainage. Here's a close up-

I flipped them over and filled them with potting mix and I was able to get 18 into a tray. I chose SOLO cups because they were quick and easy but anything that provides a minimum of 4-5" will work. I've used bottled water containers before and anything else I could get my hands on. Anyway, I'm just waiting for the seed to arrive now.

I'll soak the seed in alcohol for about 10 minutes then rinse it off and place it on a damp paper towel. I'll roll that up and pop it in my frig for about 60-90 days then I'll sow them in the tray I prepared below and I should get about 50% germination rate. Hope this helps show how simple this seed is to get going if anyone is interested. Any plants liveoaklady gets from people who can help will be planted in public gardens down in Louisiana where there is virtually nothing standing right now save Live Oaks.

Cool! I'll check them out and get some on order.