
Know Your Nursery: Summer fruit trees
We’re in the thick of the summer season, which means a lot of fruiting trees and shrubs are beginning to ripen! Valuable native species such as chokeberry, alternate leaf dogwood, and elderberry ripen in mid-to-late summer. The fruit of these species provide exceptional mid-season wildlife support, which can make them difficult to collect before the animals munch them down! The Tree Pittsburgh Heritage Nursery collects seeds from these species, propagating them for forest restoration projects.
Are you interested in collecting some of these fruits for Tree Pittsburgh? If so, always remember the three rules of seed collection:
1.) Always get permission before collecting seeds from private property.
2.) Never break branches or bend the trunk to collect seeds.
3.) Never collect more than 10% of a tree’s seed crop.
Only small amounts of seeds are needed from each parent plant (no more than a paper lunch bag). When collecting, only gather seeds from healthy-looking specimens. These fruit should be collected before wildlife get them and kept refrigerated to avoid fermentation. Please note the collection location, date, and species on the bag. Once you have collected seeds, contact Heritage Nursery Director Megan Palomo at megan@treepittsburgh.org to schedule a drop off or pick up.
Elderberry photo courtesy of Andy Rogers on Flickr