Winter is a busy time for the Forest Park Nature Reserve staff. One of the annual projects in the Park for the team is spreading seed in the Park’s 190-acre Nature Reserve.

The annual planting is the culmination of a year-round process of collecting, storing, processing, mixing and planting seeds — visitors will see the results of the seeds blooming (from spreading two years ago) starting in April.

“Most people are familiar with planting flowers from pots or containers in a yard, and the reward from that is immediate,” says Forest Park Forever’s Park Ecologist Amy Witt. “But when you plant seeds, you think and learn more about the site, the soil, the plants, the insects, the birds — and you have to be more patient.”

However, the benefits of planting seed — in Forest Park or your own yard — are substantial.

“Our goal is to restore and maintain Forest Park’s Nature Reserve for the health and diversity of the flora and fauna that live there,” Witt says. “Seeds allow us to add a greater diversity of plants at a much lower cost, especially when we can collect the seeds on site.”

Let’s take a closer look at each of the steps of the year-round process.

Seed Collection

Forest Park Forever staff started collecting seed in April until October of 2020. Over 195 pounds of seed were collected. Witt says it becomes more satisfying each year as larger quantities of seed and species diversity can be collected within the Park because of Forest Park Forever’s continued restoration efforts.

“Five or six years ago, we didn’t collect much seed in the Nature Reserve,” Witt says. “We had to collect it off-site, at Shaw Nature Reserve, in the County parks, on Missouri Department of Conservation property or Cuivre River State Park.”

Once collected, most seeds are dried and put in bags for storage until the next step. Some seeds, however, such as spring ephemerals, require immediate sowing or to be kept in the refrigerator.

Seed Processing

Once the seeds are collected, the seeds are processed which means picking at dried flowers, hand-peel plant matter or even stomping on seed pods to separate the precious seeds from the surrounding plant material.

Some of the seeds are so small they are virtually indistinguishable from dirt. Plus, there are as many ways to extract seeds as there are seeds themselves. Often, equipment comes to the rescue.

“Knowing the right way to do it is experience and creativity based,” says Witt. “Some seed may need to go into a blender to be broken up. Some go into a small limb chipper with a drum to slice up the seed pods. It all depends on the kind of plant it is.”

Seed Mixing

Freed from their husks, pods and flowers, the seeds are finally ready to be mixed with other species according to recipes carefully prepared by the Park’s Nature Reserve team. It’s both a science and an art, with Witt reviewing each recipe to make sure it is appropriate for each site.

Planting Seed

In February, the Nature Reserve team started a spreading a mix of 280 different species of seed in various areas of the Nature Reserve. Just two years ago, there were only 70 different species collected. Over 13 sites in Forest Park will be seeded this winter.

Why is winter the best time to spread seed?

“A lot of native seeds need specific cycles of cold-moist, cold-dry or warm-moist to stratify so that they can germinate,” Witt explains. “If we have our seed down by February, winter typically takes care of the stratification process naturally.”

The good snowfall we had in February helped the seed work into the soil and start to stratify.

It will take 1-2 years until visitors can see the results of this year’s seed spreading.

Apply the principles of Forest Park’s seeding experts to your yard with these tips from Amy Witt:

• Know the species you’re collecting: If you collect the wrong species, your plants may get out of control or be non-native.

• Collect ethically: Don’t collect more than 50% of the seed of a strong perennial species’ population or 10% of the seed of an annual species. Do not collect rare, threatened or endangered species.

• Stratify your seed naturally: Put it outside before February, or store it in the refrigerator. If you’re buying seed, make sure you know it has already been stratified.

• Support your seed once it germinates: Keep the area cut to about 6"-8" tall for the first year to reduce competition and allow the seedling ample sunlight.