I have now been growing these seedlings for nearly a year, almost 20 of them have germinated and really looking forward to them getting big enough to move them into bigger pots. Once they are ready I plan on putting them in some seven gallon cloth pots, letting them grow another year or two in those and then finally plant them in the ground. Though I may have to move quicker and transplant if the roots of these plants are already touching the bottoms of the small pots they are in right now.
Its very possible the pine seedlings inoculated with mycorrhiza have grown even more roots than the others, due to their beneficial relationship with the fungi and bacteria. The seedlings inoculated have the orange flags. Seems like they are bigger than the rest. So I think its working.
The long term plan is to get pine nuts from these, but that is probably nearly a decade away from happening. lol. Too bad I cannot grow the Pinion pines around here, but I am going to try to grow some other kinds that also have edible nuts.. Actually all pines have edible nuts, some taste better than others. At the very least it will be cool having some non-native pine trees around the property.
I have finished stratifying the last of my Mondell and Chilghoza Pine seeds. More are still in the fridge and have a planned planting date in September. Some pine seeds take longer to stratify than others. We do this to mimic the winter time that these seeds would be accustomed to.
These little seedlings are too small to just plant right now.. the native grasses will cover them in no time. So I want to get them a foot or two tall before I plant them outside. At that point I can flag them and make sure not to mow them while cutting the grass. Once they get 6-10 feet tall it will be hard to miss them.. lol
They grow very slow, hoping the roots have not reached the bottom of the pots already. My plan is to transplant next spring and leave them out on the porch. As if I transplant now they will not fit under these grow lights very well.
Maybe I need to rework my lights, they probably need to be transplanted before then. I may pull one out of its pot and if its roots are the bottom I will just have to move them outside early. And hope they survive the winter. That is why I want to keep them in another year. But quickly they will outgrow their space inside under the lights.
But for now they are growing under the LED lights, and hoping they grow bigger and bigger. Though their little pots are a constraining factor in their growth.
The rest of the grow room is all turned off.. all the seedlings for the garden are in the ground. And only the pine tree seedlings remain. I put them under the more powerful gullwing LED lights. They are more powerful than the strip LED lights so I think they will like that until they go outside.
They all look so small now, but many of these will become full sized pine trees. Maybe not in my life time but could reach over 100' one day. So planting them will be important to pick the spots best for them for long term growth when it comes time.