How to grow a cedar from a nut

Cedar (Cedrus) is a three-species genus of conifers belonging to the Pine family. The natural area of ​​this culture covers the mountainous Mediterranean and the western part of the Himalayas. Germinating cedar seeds at home is not particularly difficult and can be an alternative to buying expensive seedlings. You just need to get the seeds and be patient.

Contrary to popular belief, cedar seeds are inedible. They cannot be bought at the supermarket or the market. Under the name pine nuts, the seeds of the Siberian Cedar Pine are widely sold, which is related to Cedrus in the same degree of affinity as, say, hawthorn and pear.

Description, types and varieties of cedar

Cedar is a monoecious evergreen coniferous plant. At a young age, its spreading crown has a pyramidal shape, in old trees it becomes umbrella-shaped.

The bark is dark gray, scaly, cracking. The root system is shallow, so a single tree can bring down strong winds.

Cedar needles are hard spiky needles with three or four edges, blue-green or silver-gray. They are collected in bundles of 30-40 pieces and are located on shortened branches spirally or singly. Each needle lives from 3 to 6 years.

Cones are located throughout the crown of the tree and bloom in the fall. Women can be recognized by their size: their length is 5-10 cm, width is 4-6 cm, men are much smaller and surrounded by needles. The seeds on the tree ripen 2-3 years after fertilization and crumble. They are resinous triangles with a wing length of 12-18 mm.

An old tree can reach a height of 60 m with a crown width of 3 m. It lives up to a thousand years or more (according to some sources - up to 3 thousand). The genus consists of three types. True, some taxonomists distinguish the Cypriot Short-coniferous from the Lebanese cedar into a separate species.

Of course, this culture has high decorative qualities. But to grow a tree on the site, which, even after many years, will reach 60 m, is at least unreasonable. Now varieties have been created that are undersized and beautiful, but, unfortunately, do not grow even in the frost resistance zone 5. Some of them can be planted in the Rostov region, many in the south of the Krasnodar region.

Atlas cedar

A very light-loving species that lives up to 800 years. The crown of the tree is cone-shaped, height - 40-50 m. The branches are densely covered with gray-green or silvery needles collected in bunches 2.5 cm long. Cones ripen 3 years after pollination.

Atlas cedar does not like calcareous soils, but it tolerates urban conditions well. The tree is widely used in parks in the Eastern Transcaucasia, on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea and the Caucasus.

Popular varieties of Atlas cedar are highly decorative and are intended for cultivation in frost-resistant zones from 6 to 9:

• Glauka (Glauca) - a branched tree about 20 m high with grayish-blue needles;
• Fastigata (Fastigiata) - differs in bluish needles, a columnar crown, narrower than that of other varieties and the specific Atlas cedar, with raised branches;
• Glauka Pendula (Glauca Pendula) - weeping form up to 6 m high with bluish needles.

Himalayan cedar

It tolerates shading better than others, but is not well adapted to survival in urban conditions. Lives for about a thousand years, grows up to 50 m, while the trunk diameter can reach 3 m. In an adult cedar, the crown is conical, the horizontal branches are densely covered with light gray-green needles 25-50 mm long, collected in bunches.

The tree tolerates shearing well, blooms in the second half of autumn. Seeds ripen in a year and a half and crumble, they have the best germination. The Himalayan cedar gained particular popularity due to the fact that the crown of each specimen is distinguished by its original shape.

The species is undemanding to soils, but with a high content of lime it suffers from chlorosis and grows slowly. In the southern regions of Russia, varieties can be grown that can winter in zone 6:

• Karl Fuchs (Karl Fuchs) - the most winter-hardy variety with a conical crown, young needles have an almost blue color, turns green with age;
• Golden Horizon (Golden Horizon) has a wide flat crown, by the age of ten it reaches 4.5 m, in the sun the needles are greenish-yellow, in the shade - gray-green;
• Repundens (Repandens) - weeping tree with gray-green needles;
• Silver Mist (Silver Mist) - a dwarf form with silvery-white needles, by the age of 15 it grows up to 60 cm with a width of 1 m;
• Devinely Blue (Divinely Blue) grows no higher than 2.5 m, has a narrow conical crown and gray-green needles.

Lebanese cedar

The most frost-resistant and light-loving of the species. It grows up to 40 m, differs in widely spread, storey branches covered with tough bluish-green or dark green needles collected in bunches. The crown of a young tree is pyramidal, an adult one is prostrate.

This species is not suited for urban cultivation, but it can even tolerate calcareous soils. Lives for over a thousand years. It has a durable light wood with a pleasant smell and no resinous passages. It is widely used in the park culture of the Eastern Transcaucasia, Central Asia, the Black Sea coast of the Crimea and the Caucasus.

Varieties that grow well in the sixth zone of frost resistance:

• Glauka (Glauca) - a tree with a weeping asymmetrical crown and gray-green needles;
• Nana (Nana) - a dwarf form, which is a versatile bush, reaching 0.9 m by the age of 10;
• Bacon Hill (Beacon Hill) - a tree with a narrow conical crown, weeping branches and cracking bark;
• Sargenti (Sargentii) can grow in partial shade, has a weeping crown, reaches 1 m by the age of 10;
• Turkish (var. Stenocoma) - not a variety, but a form of Lebanese cedar, popular among landscape designers, with a pyramidal crown, branches directed upwards and growing up to 3 m, can grow in the frost resistance zone 5.

Is it possible to plant a cedar

It is quite possible to grow a cedar from a nut at home. You just need to first find seeds, moreover, of acceptable quality - they ripen 2-3 years after pollination. In addition, it may not come by mail that the gardener ordered; when looking for planting material, it is better to rely on personal contacts.

Even if the seeds are successfully germinated and the seedlings are brought up to the size corresponding to their displacement into the ground, planting and caring for cedar in the Moscow region is impossible. The tree is quite thermophilic, even the most frost-resistant varieties will withstand a short-term temperature drop only to -30 ° C.

Cedar grown from seeds at home does not inherit varietal traits. So it is possible to plant a tree only in the southernmost regions, in 7-9 frost resistance zones. Most likely, over time, it will reach a size of 30-60 m. Varietal trees propagated by grafts, some of which winter in zone 6, may be low, 2-6 m. There are even those that do not exceed 80 cm in adulthood.

But planting and growing at the dacha of Siberian Cedar, which is a species of the Pine genus, is quite possible. It is frost-hardy and lives up to its name - it can survive in the harshest climates without shelter. In addition, Siberian Cedar has low-growing, highly decorative varieties that make it an indispensable crop in the design of areas located in the North-West.

Features of growing cedar from seeds at home

Before you start germinating cedar seeds, you need to think about the purpose for which this is done. If just out of curiosity, no problem. But when a gardener wants to sprout a pine nut in order to transfer the tree to the garden or leave it at home, you should think about the advisability of such an operation:

1. A species tree will grow from the seed of a varietal cedar, which is not distinguished by large growth, but is resistant to low temperatures. Over time, it will reach a huge size and will not be frost-resistant.
2. Growing a cedar on a balcony or in a room, as enthusiasts advise, is actually very difficult. The tree needs differences between night and day temperatures, high humidity.
3. In general, no matter what the "experts" say, it is very difficult to grow conifers indoors. At home, it is almost impossible for them to create suitable conditions. Araucaria can be planted as a houseplant. All. The rest of the trees will have to be fiddled with like with small children. And cedar is generally not an easy crop to grow, even in a suitable climate.
4. Even if a gardener lives on the Black Sea coast, the question arises: does he have enough space on the site for a species of cedar? Otherwise, it may happen that the heirs have only one tree in the yard.
5. In addition, cedar is unstable to windblown conditions. Simply put, a tree has a shallow root system, if it grows alone, a strong wind can knock it down. Is there a place for a grove on the plot?

What else should a gardener know, who nevertheless decided to grow cedars from seeds:

• it is easier to bring the Himalayan, Atlas and Lebanese cedar before planting in the ground; it is better to leave it to specialists;
• the cedar seed coat is thin, unlike other conifers;
• the culture during germination does not need seed stratification;
• if the seeds have sprouted, even among gardeners who easily breed closely related pines, due to the slightest mistake or inattention, the seedlings may die;
• the cones of the Himalayan cedar ripen in a year and a half and open up on their own;
• in order to "get" the seeds of the Lebanese cedar, the cone is soaked and dried several times, from the moment of pollination to ripeness it takes 3 years;
• the germination capacity of the seeds of the Lebanese cedar is 20 years, of the Himalayan cedar - several months.

How to germinate pine nuts at home

Germinating cedar seeds in flower pots does not make sense - if they sprout, they will quickly die due to the inability to create proper conditions for the plant. Those who claim otherwise should try to do it themselves. Even if someone's seedling survives, it will be a rare exception. And in 2-3 years, which must pass before landing in the ground, anything can happen.

For germinating seeds indoors, special conditions are needed:

• differences between temperatures during the day and at night;
• constant high air humidity;
• low positive (from 4 to 8 ° C) temperature in winter;
• bright diffused light;
• a constant outflow of moisture from the soil, and simply taking a pot with holes and putting a drainage layer is not enough, even a short-term stagnation of water will destroy the sprouts.

The seeds should be planted outdoors or in specially adapted premises, which are used by farms engaged in the cultivation of coniferous trees. An amateur can also equip them, but this requires financial and labor costs, a separate room, and special equipment. At least for the year-round maintenance of the required controlled humidity and temperature, forced ventilation.

On the street, you can equip a cold greenhouse in which the seedlings will develop and be kept until they are planted in the ground. There you can propagate other conifers both by seeds and by cuttings.

Selection and preparation of seeds

It is better to collect cones of the Himalayan cedar on your own - the seeds quickly lose their germination. They should germinate quickly. Lebanese cedar seeds can be bought as they can sprout 20 years after harvest. It is important that the buds mature on the tree.

In real cedar, the seeds are covered with a soft shell; it is not necessary to prepare them for sowing. But preliminary soaking increases germination, which in the Lebanese is 50%, in the Himalayan - 70%.

Before planting, the seeds are dipped for 20 minutes in a pink solution of potassium permanganate, then left in warm water for 1-2 days. The planting material that has risen to the surface is thrown away - it has definitely lost its germination.

Stratification of cedar seeds at home

In fact, stratification is not necessary for the seeds of a real cedar. If you spend 60-90 days, as for a pine, the planting material will definitely die. But a short-term content in a moist substrate at a temperature of 3-5 ° C will be useful, but only if the seeds are sown in spring.

Coarse sand is washed, disinfected with potassium permanganate and calcined in the oven. You can replace it with perlite mixed with sour peat. It is enough to soak them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and rinse well.

Such recommendations are given when germinating almost all large seeds or grafting conifers. Most hobby gardeners ignore them and often get good quality seedlings safely. This number will not work with a real cedar - an infected substrate can destroy seedlings at any stage.

The seeds are mixed with a triple volume of wet sand or perlite and placed in a pre-prepared container. For these purposes, you can take a plastic container with holes in the bottom and sides.

The container is placed on slats to provide air access and placed in the lower compartment of the refrigerator. You can use a cool room with a temperature of 3-5 ° C.

It is very important to maintain a moisture balance - the substrate should not be dry or too wet. Lack of moisture will prevent the seeds from hatching, and excess will destroy it. This requirement is especially important when sprouting Lebanese cedar.

Stratification should not take longer than 2 weeks. Seeds should be inspected every day - they can hatch in 2-3 days, and then they should be sown immediately. If left unattended, sprouts can rot or break when planted.

Growing cedar at home after stratification

In the fall, seeds are sown in a cold greenhouse without any stratification. If the sprouts are allowed to hatch, and only then placed in the ground, in winter, even warm, they will die.

Of course, you can plant the seeds in containers and put them in the house. But they rise quickly, and the conditions of detention have already been considered - it is impossible to create them in an unsuitable room.

A cold greenhouse is the best solution for growing cedar from seed. The substrate should be light, consisting of a mixture of sand, sour peat and leaf humus. Seeds are sown to a depth of 1.5-2 cm rather tightly to each other - they are not afraid of a thickened planting.

Seedlings are regularly watered, preventing the soil from drying out even for a short time.Overfilling will cause black leg disease, due to which most of the seedlings die. No loosening can be carried out - this will also "thin out" the seedlings. If the substrate has been prepared correctly, it is already sufficiently permeable to water and air.

You need to start feeding the seedlings only when they get stronger - the leaf humus contains a certain amount of nutrients, for the first time they will be enough. Untimely fertilization can not only reduce the number of small trees, but also destroy them completely. In summer, seedlings need to be shaded, in winter, with a sharp drop in temperature, insulate the greenhouse, and when warming, remove the shelter.

About a year after germination, cedars dive into small plastic containers with a drainage layer, holes in the bottom and sides. Seedlings are taken out of the ground with a spoon to damage the root less and are planted at the same depth as before. The containers are watered and immediately added to the cold greenhouse. A transplant is best done in the fall.

Trees are transplanted to a permanent place no earlier than 2-3 years after germination. If the plants are for sale, they can be loaded into large containers as needed and kept in them for up to 9 years.

Planting and caring for cedar in the open field

It is more difficult to grow cedars in Russia than other conifers. They need a strictly controlled water regime. In addition, areas suitable for culture are located along the Black Sea coast, and the trees do not tolerate strong sea winds.

How to plant a cedar

Planting a tree itself is not particularly difficult. It is important to choose a suitable location and follow the landing rules.

Landing dates

Planting cedars in open ground should be in a strictly defined period. Only in this way is there a guarantee that they will take root well. Excavation begins in the fall, after most of the deciduous trees have flown around, continue throughout the winter. The cedar transplant ends in the spring, before bud break.

Preparation of planting material

The best seedlings take root at the age of 6-8 years. Cedar grown in a container is watered 2-3 days before planting. When a tree is transplanted to another place, it is dug out with an earthen lump with a diameter of at least 20 cm, wrapped when transporting or moving from the nursery to the site with a film or a damp cloth.

Soil for planting cedar

All cedars are light-requiring, only the Himalayan can withstand a little shading. They prefer to grow on loose, fertile loams, but will put up with any sufficiently permeable soils that are not prone to sticking, except for calcareous ones.

At the tree planting site, groundwater should not approach the surface closer than 1.5 m. This is enough for varietal plants, species will also not suffer - the culture has superficial roots, spreading more in breadth than in depth.

The planting hole for planting a tree is dripped by a third more than the volume of the root or earthen clod. You need to prepare it in advance.

On loose fertile sandy loams and loams that do not contain a large amount of lime, sour peat, leaf humus, ash, and special fertilizers for conifers are added to the soil. It is useful to bring at least a little bedding from the pine or spruce forest to add to the planting mixture. Leaf humus and sand are added to dense soil. Lime soils are brought into proper condition with the help of large doses of sour (high-moor) peat.

At what distance to plant cedars

Cedars are planted in large and small landscape groups.A single tree looks beautiful, but such an arrangement is possible in a place protected from strong gusty winds. The distance between the cedars when planting, even for species plants, is permissible at 3 m - they are not afraid of thickened plantings and will not suffer when they grow up.

But the tree is decorative not only bark and crown. The cones are very beautiful, especially in the Lebanese cedar. The more light a tree receives, the earlier it begins to bloom. Even with a loose planting, the first buds appear after 18 years.

Landing rules

A pre-dug planting hole is completely filled with water. They are waiting for it to be absorbed. Start landing:

1. A nutritious substrate is poured onto the bottom so that the horse's neck, after planting a tree and watering, remains at the ground level.
2. A cedar seedling is placed in the center.
3. The cedar is covered with prepared soil, gently ramming as the hole is filled.
4. Check the position of the root collar.
5. Water the tree abundantly.
6. The trunk circle is mulched with sour peat or coniferous litter.

Watering and feeding

Even an adult cedar, unlike other coniferous crops, is especially demanding for watering. The soil should not dry out, but stagnation of water at the roots is unacceptable.

The need for moisture must be determined independently. The frequency of watering depends on the weather, soil composition and permeability, and the proximity of groundwater.

Top dressing can only be used mineral - infusions of mullein, bird droppings or herbs can be harmful. For cedar, it is better to buy special fertilizers designed for conifers and lawns. There are feeds on sale designed for different seasons. They must be used strictly according to the instructions and in accordance with the seasons.

Foliar dressing plays an important role in the nutrition of cedar. At least once a month (no more than 1 time in 14 days), the tree is sprayed with fertilizers throughout the growing season. It is best to use a complex of chelates - there are all the nutrients that are well absorbed through the needles. Additionally, a portion of magnesium sulfate is added to the balloon.

Pruning cedar

By and large, cedar pruning in the country only needs sanitary. It is carried out before the growth of new shoots in spring. The crown of the cedar is attractive without any additional measures. But sometimes trees interfere with each other's growth or block the view of something very attractive hidden in the back of the garden. Cedar can be safely cut at the beginning of the season. For a radical correction, it is better to choose September.

Sometimes the owners want to create a topiary shape or cut the tree so that it resembles a nivaki. Such a haircut should also be done in September, when the heat subsides, but there will be enough time before the end of the season for the cedar to heal wounds and recover.

Preparing for winter

Real cedar grows only in the southern regions. A young tree needs shelter in the first year after planting. It is wrapped in white spandbond or agrofibre and secured with twine.

Diseases and pests

Cedar does not belong to crops that are rarely affected by diseases, and it has more than 130 pests, to combat which it is necessary to use folk and chemical means. A well-groomed tree rarely gets sick and is affected by pests. So the right farming technique itself is the best defense.

Among the pests that infest cedar, it should be noted:

• pine cone;
• spruce moth;
• pineal moth;
• spruce ordinary sawer;
• red-haired pine sawer.

Of the cedar diseases, the most dangerous for the tree are:

• variegated red rot;
• brown central rot;
• brown prismatic rot;
• rust.

Separately, I would like to note the fungi parasitizing on cedars, and serving as the cause of many tree diseases:

• pine sponge;
• root sponge;
• Swiss tinder fungus.

In the fall, the cedar needles turned yellow: what is it

Cedar needles may turn yellow before falling off. If needles live on a tree for 3 to 6 years, that's fine. Then they naturally crumble. You should sound the alarm if a young 1-2-year growth has changed color.

First of all, they carefully examine the needles and branches of a tree using a magnifying glass. If there are no signs of pest damage, and young cedar needles are yellow, you need to look for the cause. This could be:

1. The first sign of overflow or stagnation of moisture at the roots.
2. Gardeners can buy a damaged or even dead tree. But the conifers fade away slowly, and the needles often turn yellow after the plant is planted in the ground.
3. Sunburn of a tree in winter. Snow that has fallen in the southern regions can work like a lens, and the needles will suffer.
4. Insufficient watering - cedar is sensitive to lack of moisture.
5. Chlorosis. Calcareous soil and lack of trace elements can cause yellowing of cedar needles. Nutrients are absorbed faster through needles and leaves, and chelates are absorbed only by foliar treatment.

If the watering is adjusted, spraying the needles with a solution of chelates did not help, and the cedar has been growing on the site for a long time, you should think about fungal and viral diseases and treat the tree with fungicides.

How to tell a cedar seedling from a pine

In nature, there are many "cedars" that have nothing to do with the genus Cedrus. The culture should not be confused with such coniferous and deciduous trees, relying only on the name:

• Pine Cedar Stlanikova, Korean, Siberian and European, the seeds of which are eaten and called pine nuts;
• Canadian Red and White Cedars belonging to the Tuya genus;
• Eastern Red Cedar, as the Virginia Juniper is sometimes called;
• Yellow Alaskan Cedar - Nutkan Cypress;
• Fragrant Cedar, an evergreen deciduous tree of the Gvarei growing in Africa;
• Spanish Cedar - Cedre Soul, which is also not an ephedra.

In practice, real cedar is confused with cedar pines. But they can be easily distinguished by just two features:

1. The needles of a real cedar are short, about 2.5 cm long. Only in the Himalayan, they can grow up to 5 cm. Collected cedar needles in whorls of 40 pieces. In cedar pine, the needles reach a length of 6-20 cm, and there are only 5 of them in a bunch.
2. Cones are very different. This is clearly seen in the photo.

Lebanese cedar pine cone and needles

The cone and needles of Siberian cedar pine

Experienced gardening tips

What else do you need to know about real cedars and what should you re-focus on?

1. The first and main advice: you should not plant cedars in frost-resistant zones below 6. When choosing a variety, you need to pay attention to whether it can survive on the site in winter.
2. Species plants should not be placed in small private estates, even on the Black Sea coast - over time, the trees will become huge.
3. Those who plant a crop in order to obtain edible nuts can forget about it - the seeds of real cedar cannot be eaten.
4. When growing ephedra, special attention should be paid to watering - almost all problems with a tree arise from drying out or soil clogging.
5. Cedar is prone to chlorosis, and not only on calcareous soils. Crown treatment with chelates should become a habitual procedure in seasonal care.
6. Cedar requires increased attention from its owners. It is not a culture for the lazy or busy. If the gardener does not have time to tinker with the tree, it is better to choose another ephedra.
7. When placing a cedar, it is better to plant it closer to the recreation area. The phytoncidal properties of the tree are high even in comparison with other conifers.

Conclusion

Germinating cedar seeds at home is not easy. Whether it is worth doing this, the gardener must decide on his own, focusing on the presence or absence of free time and the climate of the region in which the tree is supposed to be planted. In any case, even from self-collected seeds of low varieties, a huge plant will grow.

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