Started this from a random seed found on a street about 5 years ago. Today is the first transplantation, if it survives, it’s brothers and sisters will follow! Not sure it’s optimal time for spruce transplantation, but the previous planter was 4 times smaller (soil footprint could be seen in center, with intact moss layer).
I had (still have) huge problems growing from seeds. The only things that help are:
Then things start to move.
Unfortunately, this way I can’t get anything exotic. Even the places that seem decent enough, like Palmatum, send the seeds that just do not work (I had better - order of magnitude better - results with seeds from supermarket apples than from apple seeds they sent me; I wish they sold 5-needle pines and sequoias fruits in supermarkets!). Things are so desperate we’ve made BAP-6 growth hormone and I’m going to try it on purchased seeds, it must work, I just didn’t try yet (someone told me it does exactly the right thing - germinates strong seeds - after trying it, it’s my turn now). Here, you can buy some from my store if you like to try it too https://store.zymologia.fi/hormones/24-37-6-bap.html#/17-weight-1_g - it’s just as hard to cook 1g as 1kg (apart from reagents cost and work of putting this stuff in jars), so why not share.