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Sugar maple, Acer saccharum, seed

Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 6:43 pm
by yuccaman
Im sorry if this forum is not for normal trees.Im growing a sugar maple and planted it 2 or 3 days ago.The second day I dug a small hole and saw that my maple was growing! without germinating or these seeds already been germinated.How long will this take to get a seedling?

Maybe a couple of weeks?

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:59 pm
by desertdave
Not necessarily going to speak for everyone else but sounds ok a topic to me... I have never had luck germinating sugar maple but from my experience with other maples (I started my tree growing life with a silver maple, also red maple was the third tree I grew from seed) it should start pushing out a top growth within a week or two. I dunno if sugar maples put out seed leaves (silver and red don't usually, but Norwegian almost always do). I have heard sugar maples are slow growing at first, only about four to six inches (10 to 15 mm) the first year, then take off after about three years. Once they get going they can really take off. I bought my mother a two meter tall sugar maple transplant for her birthday four years ago and it is now about six meters tall now; including about a meter and a half its second year. This is despite hot dry summers, which, stunt the growth of many cooler climate species even if they are watered.

Speaking of maples I would like to try to grow bigleaf maple in Boise... This side of sugar maples they are my favorite maple; I fell in love with them on road trips to WA and OR.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:01 pm
by yuccaman
Thanks. Your right I have heard that sugar maples do take long to grow and then they must be a hardwood.