Last attempt to grow a sugar maple before I move

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Mar 8, 2014
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It is official. My momma is looking for a house to move in to. If everything goes well, she will get the house in August and move everything that we want to move over the next few months afterwards. So this is my last chance to grow a sugar maple before I move. Unfortunately, the soil in the pot outside that has the elm sapling in it from last year(an elm seed just happened to fall into the pot and grow) is frozen solid. I mean, yes it is more periodic than all the time now but still, I can't get through frozen solid soil to plant 1 or more seeds. So my mom and dad will buy me some soil to grow the tree or trees in. Maybe they will buy a deep pot too but I don't know.

I have to have at least 1 seed sprout relatively soon. The year before last I did 3 seeds at a time once the soil moistened up from the ice and then waited a week or 2 before planting new seeds to see if any would sprout and none of them took root, not even later on when the ground temperature was warmer.

I already gently feel for the seed taking up most of the non-wing space of the samara as a sign that the seed may sprout. Maybe with this new soil, 1 or more seeds will sprout unlike the past 2 years(first, outdoors after soil moistened from ice, then indoors(the indoors one looked like it was taking root but it never sprouted)) where I have been lucky to have 1 seed growing its roots. I pick only the brown seeds, even if some of the green seeds also have the seed taking up most non-wing space in the samara. Is that why very few have sprouted because stratification or no stratification itself didn't affect the chance of sprouting(or at least not significantly)?

Should I try growing both the brown seeds and the green seeds if the seeds are large enough to see if this has an effect on sprouting?

But other than placing it in a sunny spot, giving it a deep watering, and watching and waiting, is there anything I can do to help the seeds sprout or at least increase the chances of 1 of them sprouting? The brown ones will likely have already been stratified naturally but as I said before, I haven't noticed a difference in the chance of sprouting between stratified and non-stratified. However, the maples that lasted 3 years before they died, those were grown from non-stratified seeds. I know not to water the tree if it has been raining because the soil will be plenty moist. I only water the trees once deeply and during dry spells in the summer(even then, I will be less likely to water a sapling in a dry spell than a seedling).
 

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