How To: Germinate Japanese maple seeds

Ken Alston shows how to germinate Japanese maple tree seeds. The most important thing is to always buy fresh seeds. Seeds that are bought on eBay or other unreliable sellers are dry and lifeless and the chances of germination are not very good. The video shows the huge difference between the dry seeds and the fresh seeds. On the fresh seeds you can see that the roots are already out and in some cases the leaves are out, so from this point the rest is easy. Have little seed pots ready, make small holes in the compost for the rootlets, and put the seedlings into the holes. When the seedlings start growing you may see that the plants are not all alike, some have green leaves and some have red leaves. This is because the seeds are hybrid and you don't know anything about the tree that provided the pollen. This variation is natural and is part of the beauty of growing these trees.