planting birch by seed....

crackcrack30

Anyone ever try planting birch by seed......i have a large area of blanket bog that is slooooly becoming populated by birch but was thinking of speeding this up if possible ....
.......was thinking of gathering a few bags of seed next summer but should i store them until spring or just spread them immediatly....

Any experience..... cheers.

jerryg

I have grown birch from seed but in a glasshouse or polytunnel situation.You can buy prepared seed from coilte in the spring.What I did was use this prepared seed in containers placing a couple of seed at each station .This was growing in containers that are like egg boxes but with possibly 100 small stations per containers.Then when the seed germinates I thinned them down to one per station.You can then plant out your birch in the autumn or the following spring.
It will have a lovely rootball so they will get away better.
You could sow the seed outside but you need to ruffle the ground some way and the losses would be great.Be aware that hares and rabbits are an enemy of the young seedlings as are grasses who will compete.

periodictable

Good advice from jerryg-grow it on for a year yourself then plant it-fewer losses and evenly spaced