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Sycamore seedshed

rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
in Problem solving
Like many others, my garden is inundated with sycamore seeds at this time of year. 
My wife thinks I'm obsessed with trying to avoid sycamore seedlings from growing where they are not wanted - such as on the lawn, in the cracks of the patio, amongst my pyracantha hedging plants, and dozens of other places. 
I suggested she try to extricate the seedlings in a couple of years!!
What I would like to know is, what is the likelihood of any particular seed resulting in a tree, or what proportion of seeds actually end up as seedlings.
Is this calculable?
I've cleared up what seems thousands of the little critters!
Also, in clearing them, am I denying a ready food source to birds?
Thank you.
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Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Hoe or now will get rid of most of there germinated seeds.. They're easy to pull out in the first year. If you can't get the stem out, remove the leaves. It's unlikely to recover -  and listen to your wife!
    We have very large sycamores back and front. Very few seeds germinate.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    B3 said:
    Hoe or now will get rid of most of there germinated seeds.. They're easy to pull out in the first year. If you can't get the stem out, remove the leaves. It's unlikely to recover -  and listen to your wife!
    We have very large sycamores back and front. Very few seeds germinate.
     o:)
    It's mainly the ones amongst my new hedging plants. Pyracantha really rips the hands - even with gloves.
    But knowing very few will germinate, helps.
    Thank you B3. 
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited November 2022
    Our sycamores germinate like mad.  I pull them out at about 1 year old.  Norway maple and Ash also.  Hollies, I transplant to the hedge.  One has been cloud-pruned.   Oak and sweet chestnut, I keep those growing in the right place.  I also get lots of baytrees from a neighbour's female tree - in the right place they are pruned to globes or spires.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Tree seeds are an important winter food source for small mammals like field mice and voles, so I would sweep them up and put them in an accessible stash for them over the winter ... without them the barn and tawn owls go hungry .... 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I suppose it depends on your soil.  Thick gauntlets will help. If it's easier, you can snip the seedlings to ground level with secateurs. It really isn't something to panic about 😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    And don't worry about the ones on the lawn ... once they've germinated and are a few inches tall, then you've mowed the lawn, you'll have removed their growing points and they'll keel over and die. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    Well, it seems that different people experience different levels of germination. Maybe I need to be level headed, and keep my eyes peeled.
    Thank you for the info about the need to keep the seeds for birds and small mammals. I don't like to deny them a natural source of food, solely so that I can keep the place tidy. 
    We have plenty of birds - but they are the usual garden birds - blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows, dunnocks, pigeons, magpies, robins, etc.
  • rowlandscastle444rowlandscastle444 Posts: 2,612
    Interesting that they keel over and die, or die if you remove the leaves (thanks 
    B3 and Dovefromabove).
    I'll certainly keep that in mind - and listen to my wife more  B)
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    There used to be a sycamore tree in my parents' back garden and an ash in their next-door-neighbour's front garden, and it seemed like I spent half my childhood pulling out tree seedlings (no chores done, no pocket money). They got together and had someone come and fell both trees at some point during my teenage years - they were far too big for those small town gardens and too near both houses.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I noticed a squirrel in our back garden last week who seemed to be picking up and nibbling sycamore like seeds off the lawn which I presume have dropped from a nearby Norwegian Maple tree. Not noticed them doing that before so I was intrigued. There's so many seeds though there's no way I could pick them all up and stash them somewhere else.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
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