Trying to grow white spruce from seed, could use advice

[YellowJersey]

Hi everyone, new user here,

I've got a backyard project going with my kids where I'm trying to grow white spruce from seed, but I could use some advice.

This is what I've done thus far:

1) Soaked seeds in water for 24 hours as per instructions

2) Planted seeds in moist peat cylinders/pucks (not sure what they're called)

3) Planted pucks in black soil in cleaned out red party cups. (left outside since mid April on table that gets a good amount of sun.

4) Kept moist but not soaked.

It's been a month, so I took a pair of tweezers and poked around a few of the pucks and found the seeds have not done anything, but they're still there. The birds and squirrels haven't been getting into them.

My questions are:

1) Is it too early to expect any results? We've had some snow in the last few weeks; many days with temperatures hovering around freezing.

2) Is there anything I've done wrong and should do differently in the future? If so, please advise.


Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[PJM]

White spruce should be pre-chilled or stratified to help with germination. After soaking in water and blotted dry the seeds should be stored at 2-4 degrees C for about 3 weeks. Then they can be placed in your growing medium - sphagnum peat moss & vermiculite.

Did you collect the seed yourself or purchase? If seed was not properly extracted the viability of it will be reduced. Seed needs to come from fully matured cones and usually requires drying with heat to get good seed extraction.