Some useful tips at the link below.

Picea orientalis shouldn't be too difficult, the biggest problem will be finding a group of parent trees together to get better seed production; seed from a lone specimen is unlikely to give much viable seed.

Resin

Here is a link that might be useful: Practical Conifer Seedling Growing

I grew Picea orientalis from seed last year bought from F.W. Schumacher seeds and did absolutely nothing. Mixed up some peat moss and perlite then sprinkled the seeds over the media then covered with the same mix but just a very light covering. I ran a circulation fan (helps dampening off immensely) and I had at least 1,000 seeds come up.

There's nothing to Picea orientalis.

Dax

Hi,

Thanks for the hints. I am glad it should be easy. Today i sawed the seeds in a cocopeat mix (I had some already an the selller recommended it). I sawed after 24 hours soak in temperate water.

Any hints of how long time it takes from sawing to germination ?

/Hans Olav

Goddag Hans, jeg se du er i Danmark! Det er godt ;-)

Omkring 2-4 uger til frøene spirer.

Resin

Growing picea from seeds wasn't so difficult from me. Around 70-80% of the seeds germinated last year, and after a year around 50% remained. I did the same as Dax did, but without fans or other instruments.
No, then abies, that's a lot more difficult (for me): a lot of seeds don't germinate, damping-off is a real problem and in the course of the year a lot just died (I still don't know the reason).
The end of january is rather early for sowing. ( I presume you sow them inside, in a house or glass-house?)
I wish you all the best with the Picea orientalis, and I hope to read about your progress here!

I forgot to answer your question:

At 25C it takes around a week to 10 days for germination of Picea.
At 15C it's near 3 weeks. At 10C it can maybe 4 weeks.
Sowing below 10C is not recommended.

Hi, thanks for the answers. And yes, I sow inside.

I am sure from your answers that germination in itself isn't very difficult, but...

Today (after only 3 days) the first signs of mould appeared :-( so I immediately uncovered the seedtray to get some fresh air into it.

I see basically two options now
1) Work on air-circulation and using a more laborous method of preventing the soil from drying out
2) Use a fungicide (I have no experience on fungicides...)

/Hans Olav

(I have no experience on fungicides...)

Don't use peat (drying very quickly).
Some mould is innocuous.
Use a medium pH = 5 (for Rhododendron).
Otherwise Captane.

Your'e right - the peat dries quickly - I had to use the water-spray frequently.

And now 10 days have passed without anything green showing up :-(

What's Captane ?

/Hans Olav

Captan fungicide. In Britain no longer available.

Resin

I use Consan 20 made by High Yield a brand here in the US commonly sold in nurseries and home improvement stores.

I don't cover any of my seed trays either.

Dax

Hi there,

Now 18 days have passed since i sowed my Picea orientalis and as yet nothing have happened, but then the 4 weeks haven't quite yet passed...

What do you think - should I just be more patient ?

/Hans Olav

Hello Hans Olav,

As I wrote before "all" depends on the temperature. If they are in a normally room-temperature environment of lets say 20C, around now would be the time that the early Picea seedlings show themselves.....

But there's something else. At what depth below the surface of the sowing medium did you place them? If you planted the seeds 1 inch (2.5 cm) or deeper, they certainly will not or hardly show up..... Best is to seed Picea seeds at a depth of 0.3-0.9 cm (1/4 to 1/8 inch).
My experience is that with 1.0-1.5 cm of depth some of them will also come up, but they will have to use a lot of energy for this....

Hi,

Thanks for the answer.

I placed the seeds approximately 0.5cm below the surface - some a little more and some a little less. 20 seeds total.

They are kept at approximately 22C.

Checked the seed-tray right now and there is no bad smell or anything else indicating something bad - except no seedlings at all.

/Hans Olav

There's one question left:
Are the seeds+medium in a very dark place or in sunlight? (which is good). When it's completely dark I think they will not germinate at all.

If there's enough light,I think you didn't do anything wrong, and it's just bad seeds.....

"When it's completely dark I think they will not germinate at all"

I've had Abies seeds germinate in a closed container in the fridge, so they at least can germinate in complete darkness. I'd doubt Picea differs significantly.

Resin

Don't seeds germinate in the dark anyway (the ground)? Of course the sun could warm the ground.

As hard as it sounds to germinate many conifers seeds, makes me wonder how the trees grow in nature, but obviously they do.

Some seeds do require light to germinate and some seeds require complete darkness to germinate, depending on the Genus and species of plant.

I have found most conifers pretty easy to germinate and I usually surface-sow the seeds after soaking the seeds in water for 24 to 48 hours (with a water change if the water discolors). After a day or two, most conifer seeds will sink to the bottom of a container of water if they are viable, but not always. My Pinus aristata seeds did not sink and they germinated just fine.

Since Picea seeds are pretty small, I would just sow them as stated above. Dr. Dirr says that no pretreatment is necessary, but a short cold/moist pretreatment probably unifies seed germination.

Don't give up if the seeds don't germinate during their "supposed" ideal germination time, but you may not have good seed so don't be too disappointed if you get no germination from this seed.
Good luck,
Mike