Anyone on here ever grow River Birch trees from seed?

15 years ago

Last summer, I obtained a handful of River Birch seeds from trees they were selling at Lowe's. I read up on all the advice I could stomach on the internets (hehehe), and on January 29th, sowed them in a pot with sterile seed starter mixture. I kept them well watered in the kitchen under lights. They sat there and they sat there and I gave up on them sprouting any time soon, so set the pot over to the side on the counter. This evening I pulled the pot out of the corner where it got morning sunlight only, and Voila! There are three tiny little seedlings growing in there!

I wonder if they are Birches? Surely they must be, although they are so small! I would have expected something bigger looking at the size of the seeds. The timing is right - about 40-50 days. Curious.

I can't find any images of newly sprouted birch seeds anywhere. My books don't have them either. All show seedlings 4-12 inches or bigger. No help in this case.

Anyone who has any experience growing them, please let me know, even via email if you would prefer.

Heap Thanks.

~Annie

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Comments (8)

Eduarda
15 years ago
I've grown what I hope to be an Hymalayan birch from seed that was sent to me from the US. I say I hope because I have no idea whether this particular one will come true from seed. Anyway, it's a birch and when the seeds sprouted they were also very tiny. Hard to believe they'll turn into a tree, but apparently they do. From this tiny seed, my tree is currently about 1.50m tall (5 ft) and I'm wondering how tall it will be by the end of Summer (just breaking dormancy at the moment). I love birches, if I had the room I would have a whole grove of them.

Good luck with your River Birch
Eduarda
token28001
15 years ago
I wintersowed some too. Got them in a RR swap last fall. Mine are just beginning to sprout. I'm curious what they'll look like as well.
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I think it will be very easy to dig up and, especially if you didn't tease the roots out, the rootball should be completely intact. It's kind of a judgment call on how to precede with the rootball. You have two factors working together against you. The first is that, from your description, it sounds as if the tree was potbound. That means that the roots are unlikely to grow out into the surrounding soil (and may even become girdling roots later on) unless they are either spread out or properly prepared. The second factor is that you are planting the tree in the very worst time possible. If you were planting a non-potbound pot-grown tree this time of year, it would probably be perfectly fine. If you were planing a potbound tree, and prepared it correctly, in the middle to late fall, in the winter, or in early spring, it would be fine. The problem arises when the root system needs to be compromised for the future health of the tree but the tree needs all of it's root system intact to survive the stress of transplanting in very hot weather. Is there a chance of being able to take it back where you bought it and get your money back? It sounds like the tree isn't in great shape. Trees should not be potbound when they are sold. If that's not an option, I think you'd probably be best off to try to carefully untangle (tease) the roots out around the rootball surface. Keep as much of the rootball intact as possible to lessen transplant shock, but be sure no roots circle more than about a quarter of the rootball. You may have to cut a few of them to get things straightened out. If you do cut them individually, cut them as they emerge from the rootball before they start to wrap around. The roots will tend to sprout out in the direction of the cut root end. Do what you can to limit the amount of root disturbance while eliminating encircling roots that won't grow out into surrounding soil and may girdle the trunk or the root system as they grow. Once you've got the tree replanted, be sure to mulch the entire planting area correctly (see info in link above) and keep an extremely careful check on soil moisture (see link). Properly maintaining soil moisture is going to be critical the the survival of this tree.
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It is really quite simple Ken. I know quite a bit about plants in general, but recently became interested in birches. I learned what I could from them, which is enough to positively ID quite a few species. However, I was slightly confused because I read a few erroneous bits of information that claimed no birch ever comes true from seed. However, Thanks to common sense and the input from the fine folks of this site, I was able to piece together that named cultivars do not come true to type, but pure species do. The groves I collected seeds from were pure species. One grove had nothing but Betula Pendula, so the collected seeds are most likely Betula Pendula. There were no other birches for miles around (except more pendula, though the concentration became less dense the farther out you went.) Because of the rather large radius of only pendula being around, I can safely say I have pure pendula seed. The same applies to the Japanese White Birch. This grove was on someone's private property (I got permission to collect seeds). Again, this grove was started from pure betula platyphylla and no other birches were found for miles. I collected seeds from the center of each grove to have the best chances of pure seed collection. In short, I was just a bit confused about birches coming true to type from seed, but it was cleared up. I do not have seeds from named cultivars, I essentially have wild type seeds. On an unrelated note, Ken, what's with all the "...." ?
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TO: gunsiloveguns ..... be patient .... some nuts (acorns) germinate in 10 to 30 days .... most true nuts take much longer. A rule of thumb ... the harder and thicker the shell is ... the longer it will take to suck up moisture and for the "sprout" to emerge. It could take 30, 60, or 90 days, depending on the conditions ... and every nut is different (unique) I have had red oak acorns lie in the ground for up to 4 years before they finally began to grow. (Don't know why the squirrels didn't find them) A word of advice that my DAD taught me .... "If you want to play Mother Nature, you have to be patient and do things in a big way! She puts billions of nuts and seeds out there, in hopes of growing just a few trees or plants. The more you plant, the more success stories you will have ... and the disappointments you will have, too. We all have a lot of time on our hands, and once you do your job, let Mother Nature take the reins!!" My Dad spent thousands of hours in the woods and planted tens of thousands of nuts ...EVERYWHERE ... he always had a pocket-ful of nuts with him .. whenever he went afield .... and his pockets were empty ... when he came home!!! I meet senior residents of our Town, every once in a while, that tell me about the tree, in their yard, that came about, because MY DAD planted a nut there 20, 30, or 40 years ago!!! ...And ... I am doing the same thing!!!!
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Annie
Original Author
15 years ago
I too love birches and would love a little wood of them. I would plant Scottish bluebells under them en mass.
A seed trading friend of mine in California sent me three bags of birch seeds (besides the ones I got myself from the little tree at Lowe's). They are European Birch, White American Paper Birch and one other that I cannot recall off hand. I read that they had to be fresh or they wouldn't grow, so I didn't planted them. But now, I think I will go ahead and try sprouting them. What have I got to lose?
I think if I put them in very soggy paper towels and stick them in plastic bags, they should sprout, as that is where they sprout best in their natural environment - on the banks of brooks and rivers where it is very wet.
Worth a try.

Eduarda, I appreciate your input.
Muito Obrigada!

~Annie
Eduarda
15 years ago
You're welcome, Annie, I'm impressed at your Portuguese! :-) BTW, I wintersowed my birches too and the seeds sprouted without any problems using that method. You may wish to try both methods, since you've got so much seed.

Eduarda
Annie
Original Author
15 years ago
NÃ£o sei muito, Eduarda!
Um pouco. (Not very much, Eduarda...a little bit.)

Maybe ten words, like 'sim' (yes) and 'nÃ£o' (no) plus I can say, "O meu nome Ã© Annie." (my name is Annie)

Other words are so much like Spanish, like 'Claro' and 'verdade' (the Spanish is verdad), and that helps me, but really, that's it. Not sure I am pronouncing them right though. That's a little tricky and could get me into trouble, as you know! (hehehe)

Anyway, thank you - Obrigada!

~Annie
plantmaven
15 years ago
Probably more info than you need or want. But the seed age info caught my eye.

k

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas parks and wildlife
Annie
Original Author
15 years ago
Awesome, Kathy!

Thanks you so much!
Seeds good 4-20 years! Wahoo!

~Annie
Solu
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I know this is an extremely old thread but I thought it'd be useful to post this here. I'm growing some birches from seeds and took a few pictures of the newly germinated babies for reference.

[Germinated paper birch seed[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/gardenweb-phvw-vp~56739925)

[Yogurt cup (5oz/150g) for size reference.[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/gardenweb-phvw-vp~56739654)

This is from a paper birch which I believe have smaller seeds than river birch, correct? I found some river birches as well and they're slightly bigger. They look about the same.

Anyone on here ever grow River Birch trees from seed?

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Eduarda

token28001

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Anyone on here ever grow River Birch trees from seed?

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Eduarda

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