In the Beginning
The story of this tiny tree starts back when I first began blogging on Steemit. I came across some trees with the weirdest looking nuts on them and those turned out to be Ohio Buckeye. Being a plant nerd, I couldn't help but collect some seeds. Of course, this inspired me look for other sources of seeds to try and plant. I also collected what I believe are Burr Oak seeds as well as some random apple seeds.
The next part of the story I shared about three months ago. I had been storing the Oak and Buckeye seeds in damp peat moss in the refrigerator. I noticed that some of them had been covered in a strange fungus and a few of them had sprouted.
A few weeks later, I did an update where I planted the buckeye seeds that had sprouted. I figured they could use a little more room, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with them since it was still a deep freeze outside. I ended up planting them in red solo cups and putting them back in the fridge. I crossed my fingers that they wouldn't grow too much more before the weather warmed up and spring arrived.
Which Brings Us to the Present
Our living situation has been a little odd lately as we have temporarily moved in with Aimee's parents. In all the confusion, I almost forgot about these tree seeds. I probably would have forgotten but we finally started to get warm weather and that made me think about planting stuff. They had been sitting in the fridge for over a month and I only checked on them a couple of times! I wasn't even sure if they were going to be alive because I hadn't been watering them!
Most of them still felt a bit moist but a couple of them were pretty dry. None of them had pushed up through the soil yet. I was a little worried that I had killed them. I brought them back to the in-laws house, watered them and set them out at room temperature. Hopefully, they would continue growing.
I still had a bunch of seeds in various containers, though some of them are semi quarantined with the fungus. I sifted through them and found a few more sprouted buckeyes and finally some sprouted acorns!
Last time I lamented not having some sort of free container to plant them in but this time I was ready with a bunch of large used coffee cups. Finally, my caffeine addiction is paying off! I like the cups because they are really tall which will give the tap root more room to grow. At some point, later this year, I will repot all the survivors into larger pots or plant them out into the ground.
I poked holes in the bottom of the cups with a pen, because that is all I could find at the in-laws that was about the right size, then filled them with a mix of soil from the ravine behind the house and some potting mix I had left over. I will have to go through the containers again in awhile to see if there are more sprouted seeds.
I must say, I find growing trees when you aren't yet living where they will be planted a little odd, but if @gheambyt can grow hundreds of trees and bushes while living in an apartment then I should be able to manage a few trees while staying at the in-laws...
After about a week, here are the results.
Ohio buckeye seedlings.Pretty much all of the buckeyes in the red solo cups are up! I didn't kill them! A few of the buckeyes in the coffee cups are up too. So far, none of the oaks are poking through the soil but they weren't nearly as far along as the buckeyes were, so I am not worried yet.
Stay tuned for more updates on this project as well as the other seeds I am attempting to sprout.
The Challenge
A couple days ago I came across a Homesteading Challenge by @kiaraantonoviche to do a post themed about Earth day or Arbor day and how you are doing something to make the world a better place.
So what did all of the above have to do with Arbor day?
Well, Arbor day is a day to celebrate tree growing and planting and I will be growing quite a few trees this year. I am not sure yet how many, as I am still waiting to see how many sprout. I also am working on some other seeds that are beyond the scope of this post but so far I am up to 17 buckeyes and 5 Oaks and I have no doubt that there will be more.
I'm growing them from seeds that I harvested locally. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone planted just 10 trees every year? Especially if some of those trees were edible or had other benefits besides providing habitat for animals and cleaning the air. It would be like the garden of Eden. The world would be even more beautiful and there would be a lot less food scarcity. We could also reverse a lot of the deforestation that has occurred in the past few centuries.
As I am demonstrating the cost of planting trees can be next to nothing and it is kind of fun. I hope you plan on planting a few trees this year too!
All of the photos in the post are the original work Matthew and Aimee.
