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About this variety
No cold stratification, but keep the seed below 30 °C
Chir pine seed germinates well without dormancy treatment. In a Journal of Tropical Forest Science study, seed soaked in water for 24 hours and tested at 20 °C and 25 °C reached 72.5% germination; at 30 °C it fell to 58.8%. Soak the seed, keep it at 20–25 °C and avoid warm spots above 30 °C.
The same study found that a 24-hour soak in 1% hydrogen peroxide raised germination to 89.8% and shortened the germination period by 10 days in the laboratory. It is a result from a trial, not a requirement.
Keep leftover seed cool and sealed
An Indian Council of Agricultural Research storage trial compared containers over 20 months. Seed kept in sealed glass jars at about 5 °C kept 79.5% germination for up to 16 months, and seed stored at −5 °C in canvas bags did worst. If you sow only part of the packet, put the rest in a sealed jar in the refrigerator.
Plan for a very large tree
Chir pine is a 30–50 m evergreen with needles in bundles of three and cones 12–24 cm long, native to the Himalayan foothills at 500–2000 m. Fallen needles acidify the soil and form a carpet few other plants tolerate. Cones need about 24 months to ripen. Seeds are 8–9 mm long with a long wing, and 1000 seeds weigh 110–157 g in the Uttarakhand sources tested.
What the packet is
The packet holds 20 or 50 seeds of Pinus roxburghii. We do not publish a germination percentage for this lot and do not know its provenance; the figures above come from published studies of Uttarakhand seed.
Also known as: Chir pine, Chil pine, Himalayan longleaf pine, Indian longleaf pine, Roxburgh pine, Sarala, Chir-Kiefer, Pin de Roxburgh and Pinus longifolia.
