Hello! I have a question. It is late November, but my Japanese maple seeds are not fully brown. I do live in Cali, so it is warming here but do I wait until they are fully brown or pick them now? The web says to do it mid Oct but then it also says to wait until fully brown. What should I do?

I have seen the same conflicting information... I have several types of maple seeds and some are brown and some still colored. I'll just start all of them and document what happens.

I always wait until they are falling from the tree.

I harvest seeds in fall (Oct) when the wing on the samara is turning brown and the seed is still green. When the leaves on your tree start to change to their fall color or fall, the seeds are ok to harvest. It's not a big deal if you remove the seeds a bit too early, they will continue to mature at room temperature.


I usually sow in flats in Dec immediately after a 24 hr hot water treatment when the rest of my fall chores are behind me, and let Mother Nature take care of cold stratification. I fill flats 3/4 full of moist 5:1:1 mix (seed starting mix is fine) and spread the seeds evenly as I can on top of the soil, then cover the moist soil with 1/4" of screened sphagnum peat (or more seed starting mix) and leave them to over-winter in my garage with all my temperate trees in containers. Most germinate in March or early April. The 'in the fridge/ paper towel method' works fine for small batches of seeds..

I sow the seeds very densely, maybe as many as 100/sq ft. This ends up producing long, straight whips. I allow them to grow without pruning for a full year, selecting the trees I want and marking them with a piece of yarn tied to the tree. I look for trees with small leaves and short internodes or unusual bark characteristics. I might select 1 or 2 out of every 100 seedlings. Some of the whips get used in their second year for root grafts, so there is always a demand for J-maple whips.


These are just starting to poke their heads up, and maybe half of the seeds had germinated at the time I took the image. I started them for a friend but he was injured and I'm still holding them for him. They will be 2 years old now come March. If I remember, I'll add an image. They have all lost their leaves and are headed for deep dormancy as soon as we get some hard freezes.

Don't forget to plant some CLUMPS. I often plant 5-10 seeds in the same hole and thin later.

Al

In warmer climates like California, Japanese maple seeds may take longer to mature and turn fully brown. If it's late November and the seeds are not fully brown, you can wait a bit longer. Keep monitoring their color, and once they are uniformly brown, it's a good indication that they are ready for harvesting.

As noted, there is a forgiveness factor built into the seeds, such that they can be harvested while the seed is still green as long as the samara wing is turning or has turned brown or the leaves are turning to their fall colors. Ripening continues after abscission if kept dry and at room temp.

Also, it's not so much that the seeds take longer to mature in CA, rather, they mature later in the season due to influences like day length (actually, it's night length) and warmer temperatures than in more northerly climes.

Al

tapla said:
Also, it's not so much that the seeds take longer to mature in CA, rather, they mature later in the season due to influences like day length (actually, it's night length) and warmer temperatures than in more northerly climes.

Al

Would that be in the Alpine parts of the state? Or the high desert? Or somewhere in the middle? There's no one size fits all in this state.

My statement wasn't intended to "fit all", and when it's viewed in context one would have to be intentionally obtuse to suggest otherwise. It's a direct reply to the post above mine, which reads, "In warmer climates like California, Japanese maple seeds may take longer to mature and turn fully brown, so it is not overly broad. If you find an error in my thinking, you're invited to point to it, please, so others can benefit from your store wisdom and our exchange. It's always better when an exchange produces light instead of heat.

Al

I don't know how you got to your esteemed age without developing a sense of humor. It was a joke.

Typically, "jokes" have a punchline and don't habitually come at someone else's expense.

Al

Its rude to hijack someone else's post so I'm ending this.

BTW jamescunah, you are absolutely right.

Why I have a love hate relationship with social media 🤦🏼‍♂️