What are the Easiest Trees to Propagate
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
What are the Easiest Trees to Propagate?
American Chestnut (Castanea dentata)
The seeds of this tree and those of other true chestnuts will dry out quickly, so keep the nuts cool and moist at all times. Stratify the nuts for 4 months. Then cut a slit in the outer hull. To prevent theft by rodents, try the following trick. Poke holes in the sides of a beer or soda pop can; then cut the bottom out. Drop the nut into the inverted can, pack it with soil, and bury the can right side up so the nut is about an inch below the soil surface. The nut can germinate, the roots can grow, but the squirrels can’t get a free meal!
Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)
This tree is the easiest plant to propagate aside from dandelions. The small seeds are contained in pea-like pods that hang from the trees throughout the winter. Because the seeds have an impermeable outer shell, they can be stored for years without losing their viability. When you are ready to start your project, pour boiling water over the seeds for 1 to 3 seconds. Then plant them. They will germinate in about a week, and you won’t believe the rapid rate of growth. Thorns quickly develop on young seedlings to keep rodents away.
Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)
Don’t let the common name fool you: The horse chestnut is a buckeye, not a true chestnut. You cannot eat the nuts, but you can plant them. They germinate so freely that seedlings
easy trees to propogate
will emerge in great numbers from nuts that have been raked into a pile with leaf debris. The horse chestnut is a rapid grower with showy white flowers in the late spring. Leaf scorch – the browning of leaves – can be an unsightly problem during the summer.
Red Oak (Quercus rubra) And Black Oak (Quercus velutina)
Both trees have bitter acorns, so squirrels leave many of them where they drop. However, if you wait till spring to gather the nuts, many will have been lost to weevils that bore into the acorn and destroy the embryo. It’s better to gather the nuts in the fall. Soak them in 120-degree water for 30 minutes. Then stratify the acorns for 4 months: Put them in a seal-top plastic bag along with a slightly damp sponge or paper towel, and place the packet in a refrigerator crisper. In the spring, plant the acorns in moist soil and stake the perimeter with chicken wire or another barrier to keep critters at bay.
White Oak (Quercus alba)
The acorns of this tree are not as bitter as those of red and black oak, so squirrels gather them without delay. White oak acorns do not need to be stratified. If you plant them indoors in November, they will sprout in December. Left outside, the acorns send out a taproot in the fall. They then lie dormant until spring, when seedlings emerge. As with all oaks, protection of the acorn and seedling from rodents is critical. We recommend loosely wrapping the lower surface of the seedlings with tinfoil and then surrounding the whole plant with a 2-liter plastic bottle that has had the top and bottom cut off. Pest control for organic gardens.