The Nuts & Bolts Of Fruits & Nuts: Growing Trees From Seed.
(Reid Parkhill runs Fen Valley Farms, located in the hills of Central Frontenac. Fen Valley grows food without the use of pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers, participating in the Sharbot Lake and Perth Markets and has an online store at Fenvallyfarm.com, and a farm stand at 1361 Tryon Road)
As the days grow shorter and the shadows grow longer, the pace of a farm begins to slow. It's a much-needed break after the chaos of a busy season. 2025 was a doozy! But strangely enough even late fall is a time to start planting.
Over the past 3 years I have began experimenting with raising fruit and nut trees from seed. Many of these seeds require what’s called stratification to germinate which is a designated time spent in low temperatures. This can be achieved by bagging up the seed with slightly dampened soil and keeping in your fridge or putting them right out in the cold earth, au naturel (o’natural). From my experience directly sowing has yielded the best results with minimal effort. Apples, hazelnuts and sea buckthorn, sour cherry, pine nuts and walnut all seem more than happy to greet you when things warm up the following spring.
However, this method proved inconsistent for sweet chestnut; which requires minimal water throughout the winter to prevent rotting. Sad to say that mushy chestnuts were all I found come May. This winter they’re fridge bound. In their Ziplock cocoon they patiently clock their cold hours (approximately 110 days -) after which they will begin to germinate. At this point they can be planted in pots or specially built starter beds to grow up for a year before being planted out in their forever home.
As for the others. Straight in the soil they go. A 24”x48”bed can house over 60 young saplings! The starter beds I use are - sometimes called an air pruning bed;an elevated raised bed with a wire mesh bottom. Once the roots reach the open air underneath, they “self prune” which reduces the circulating roots you sometimes get with potted trees. Once the seeds are planted, I top them off with a thin mulch of shredded leaves and leaf mold from the woods to invite beneficial fungi to the party. I then secure a wire mesh screen over top to prevent hungry mice, voles, chipmunks and birds from snacking over the winter. - I’ve bought some seeds from other Ontario growers;chestnuts, pine nuts and hazelnuts -. While the others; apples, cherries, walnuts and sea buckthorn are saved from fruit eaten over the season. While the fruits they produce won’t be identical to their parent tree, chances are that some may be their own delicious new variety. Before you hang up your shovel for 2025 it’s not too late to split open that apple core and get growing… even in November.
