Pine Parenthood
Posted by Antonio on April 29, 2005
Q: Hi.I would like to know if closed cones depend on on the trees for them to open.Also,I'm having trouble finding spruce seeds because all I can find are either closed or opened cones.
Thanks For Your Help.
A: Spruce cones are mature in one year and will open on trees during autumn and some on into the winter. If you can collect the cones at the end of the growing season, you should be able to get mature cones even if they are closed. Remove the cones and allow to dry and they should then release their seeds. Remember that you'll need to allow them to overwinter (called stratification) in cold conditions for germination in spring. If you're late collecting spruce cones and they're already open when you look in the fall, you can try collecting open cones as they may still have some seeds present (Black Spruce release their seeds slowly over the winter), but that will depend on the species. The seeds are quite small (smaller than a pea) so don't look for anything very large. Best of luck with your spruce plans.
John Wiessinger ( April 30, 2005)