Plant Sycamore Tree Seeds

Sycamore trees grow for decades and reach towering heights, offering shade and beauty to your lawn. Sycamore seeds can be collected for planting from sycamore trees or bought at a nursery or garden center. The most important thing is to start growing them in a tray for a few months. Then they should be transferred to a pot for a year or two before planting them in the ground.

Steps

Nurturing the Seeds

  1. Plant the seeds in a shallow tray. Sycamore seeds are grown best when you start them in a tray and then transfer them to a pot. Choose a shallow growing tray, but one that’s deep enough to let the seed take root. The plant will grow to about four inches in the first two months.[1]
  2. Bury the seeds about ⅛ inch deep. With the shallow tray filled with good, seed-starting soil, make a hole that’s no deeper than ⅛ of an inch. This isn’t much, so if you have a ruler handy, it will be easier to tell. It may be easier to just push the seed slightly into the soil rather than making a hole first.[1]
    • Potting soil works well, but also look at the garden store for soil that specifically says it is for starting seeds.
  3. Cover the seed with peat moss or leaf mold. With the seed pushed into the soil, it will grow best if it’s covered with something richer than soil. Peat moss and leaf mold both have great nutrients for a sycamore seed. Make sure you don’t put it too thick or it will choke out the seed.[2]
  4. Set the tray in indirect sunlight. Sycamore seeds soak up a lot of sunlight when they are beginning to sprout. Place the tray somewhere that stays between 70℉-85℉ (21℃-29℃). Makes sure there is sunlight but that the tray is not in direct sunlight for very long.[1]
    • It’s best to keep the seed tray inside so that it doesn’t drown during heavy rains.
  5. Water the soil as needed to keep it moist. You don’t necessarily have to water the seedlings every single day. Check the soil each day and it if seems to have lost moisture, water it. Water the soil just enough to moisten it, not to make it soaked through.
    • A simple soil test is to stick your fingers into the soil. If you can press your fingers into the soil up to your knuckle, there’s enough water in the soil.
  6. Move the tree to a pot when it reaches four inches (10cm) in height. After a couple of months, give or take, the sycamore should be at about four inches (10cm) in height. It should have a solid root system and leaves by this point. Transfer it from the shallow tray into a deeper pot with good drainage.[2]

Transferring Saplings into the Ground

  1. Let the sapling grow two to four feet before planting it. Sycamores are fast growing trees, but they take about a year to reach two feet tall. It’s best to keep the sycamore in a pot for that much time. You may need to transfer it to bigger pot if it seems to become rootbound.[3]
    • Rootbound means that the roots have grown so much that they’ve filled the pot. Gently pull the sapling, along with its roots, out of the pot every two months to check that there is plenty of soil left in the pot.
  2. Plant the seedling at least 15 feet from your house. Sycamores grow tall, have a wide canopy, and an grow an extensive root system. Because of this, you want to plant them plenty far away from your house and other structures. 15 feet is a good distance, but if you have the room, plant it even farther away.[4]
    • Consider sidewalks, sheds, barns, or other structures that the roots could grow under and harm.
  3. Choose a spot that gets six hours of direct sunlight each day. Sycamore trees want to soak up the sun, so make sure you pick a wide open spot. If you already have a lot of trees, try hard to place the sycamore away from the rest.[3]
    • Spend a week to so watching your yard to see what parts get the most sun. Sycamore trees grow for decades, so you want to make sure it will continue to get sun as it grows tall.

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.thoughtco.com/collecting-preparing-sycamore-seed-for-planting-1343423
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.weekendgardener.net/tree-information/sycamore.tree.htm
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/TreeDetail.cfm?ItemID=1080
  4. ↑ http://arbordayblog.org/treeoftheweek/what-you-should-know-before-planting-a-sycamore/

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