Ræktun stafafuru í sáðbakka

I. Conifers/Pine trees in general
Af http://en.allexperts.com/q/Conifers-713/2008/8/Pine-trees-general.htm - Expert: Jim Hyland - 8/5/2008

Get a tray that is suitable to plant your pine cone seeds in and fill it with a good seed starter soil. Then take the pine cone seeds you have gathered and polk the seeds into the soil so they are about an inch [2,5 cm] apart. Water the seeds well and cover the tray with some plastic so the seeds stay moist. Keep the tray of pine cone seeds in a warm preferably sunny spot. Keep the seeds moist until the seeds spout into little plants. Then you can take the plastic off of the tray and make sure the tray is in a sunny location. Keep the little pine tree seedlings watered.

After the seedlings are about an inch or two [2,5-5 cm] high you can transfer them into a pot of there own. Use good potting soil for the pine trees and gently transfer them into their own pot. At this point you can give these little pine tree seedlings to friends and relatives or you can continue to care for them until they are big enough to plant outside. They should be between six inches [15 cm ] tall to a foot [30 cm] tall before they are planted outside. After they are planted outside they will need the weeds cut around them for a few years until they can take off on their own. When the pine trees grow to be taller then the weeds around them then they can pretty much take care of themselves. Growing pine trees from seed is a long commitment but a good one for our earth.

II. Ræktun undir dagblaði
Helga R. Einarsdóttir (4. janúar 2013, á facebooksíðunni ræktaðu garðinn þinn):

Ég hef margoft sáð furu af ýmsum gerðum. Fæ mér bara mold í bakka í apríl eða maí dreifi fræjumum á moldina og þek svo yfir með þunnu moldarlagi. Breiði dagblöð yfir á þvottahúsborðinu og passa að halda röku. Spírar vel og á þremur vikum verða til litlar furuplöntur tilbúnar til að fara út í kalt gróðurhús í júní og svo í potta. Það er reyndar líka sniðugt að nota svona "pottabakka" og láta eitt fræ í hvert hólf, þá geta greyin fengið að vera á upprunastað fyrsta árið, eða tvö.

H. Hafliðason segir svo frá því á fb.vef Trjáræktarklúbbsins í apríl 2015 að best sé fyrir ungplöntur að notast hrjúfa mold í pottunum, gjarnan úr í furulundi og blönduð með vikri og holtasandi til helminga.

Tvær furur í Brekkuskógi í ágúst 2011.
Hugsanlega bergufra til vinstri og stafafura til hægri.

III. Grow a Pine Tree from Seed
Af http://www.desertmud.com/articles_details/ArticleID/1

The right time to start:
For ideal growth, you want to have the trees spend their first weeks in non-freezing weather. I plant my seeds in the end of December or in Jan. and expect them due by March-April. However this is extrememly vairable depending on what you do to your seeds before planting as certain processes may speed this up: soaking, stratification, scarification.

Growin' the trees:
First find a sunny window INdoors to place the pots. If you start the trees outdoors you're asking for trouble from birds and squirrels & THESE EXTREMELY FOUL SMELLING CRAP WHITE MINI WORMS DESTROYING YOUR PRECIOUS SEED. Get some small growing cubicles (like the six pack ones that you can buy small flowers or tomatos in). The most important thing is depth not width & don't go overboard! I use Kellog's all purpose potting soil, others will do, but I just like Kellogs. Fill the pots up with the potting soil and water them very well. Push the seed vertically into the soil (one per cubicle) so that the top is barely below the surface of the soil and cover the top of the seed with a very thin layer of soil. Make sure you put the proper end of the seed facing down into the soil. The end of the seed which should enter the soil first is pointier than the other end. If it is hard to tell which end is pointier I think you have a defective seed ;-). Water occasionally, don't soak 'em but just keep the soil throughly watered at all times and just wait, be patient it may take a few months to see anything change..
A friend of mine uses the following technique with great success for Pinon pine: soak the seeds overnight and then place the seeds between a few layers of very damp paper towels. Keep the paper towels consistently very damp by spraying with a squirt bottle very often. Once the seed cracks open and the tap root begins to extend, the seeds need to be planted in potting soil, root end down (duh). The root (and future tree) will die quickly if it does not begin to get nutrition from actual soil, not paper towels.

When the seeds start rising:
This is a good sign. When the needles start bowing out you need to watch to make sure they continue to bow or grow longer. If they do, leave the tree alone; if they are bowed somewhat and then don't change for about two days, hold the tree in place gently but firmly and slowly pull the seed off. Also important, the tree will lean towards the window so it is necessary to turn the pots around so that the tree remains roughly verticle. As soon as the seed falls off, take the tree outside and plant it in about a 1 gal. [3,7 lítra] sized pot (in potting soil) and keep it watered. If you take good care of it and give it exactly what it needs (who knows what this is?) it may grow up to a foot [30 cm] or so in the first two years. After the first two years it will likely be outgrowing the 1 gallon [3,7 lítra] pot and it should be planted, preferably in its permanent location in the ground. Coulter pines that are planted in larger and larger pots tend to grow slower and are easier to kill (sometimes hard to keep alive). Water them well, very few trees are drought resistant in a pot and Coulter pine is not one of them.

An interesting note:
If you are lucky enough to find an unopened but ripe cone, it may contain ~170-200 viable seeds!! Getting all the seeds out without injuring them should take a few hours, water & pliers help.