First plantings at Euroa Arboretum – 2004
• 6provenances–157 plants planted initially.
• 86plantsdiedinthe first year.
• Another30inthe following year.
Lesson – Site selection is important for best success.
Seed Production at Euroa Arboretum
- 9 provenance sources from original plantings from the Strathbogies and Tooborac.353 plants originally planted over a number of years.
- 80 trees we can still identify in 2015. 30 plants have lost labels.
- Only 6 provenances now represented that we can identify.
Lesson – clear labelling and record keeping is critical to ensure your seed production area has the diversity you intend and for long term tracking.
Seed Collection
- Our first big seed collection was 2013. This followed quite a mild, wet summer. We collected about 1kg of seed that year.
- 2014 – 1kg, 1.5kg – Repacholi
- 2015 – 31g, 500g – Repacholi
- 2016 – 5g.
Lesson – do we need to locate our seed production areas in locations with mild summers, and better sources of moisture?
Germination
- Seeds tend to germinate best in cooler months.
- They are slow to germinate as the weather warms up, but can respond when in shade house conditions.
- Population health makes a huge difference to germination success. Small, isolated populations are much less vigorous seedlings.
- Seedlings tend to have issues with dampening off in nursery conditions as they get bigger.
GBCMA – Silver Banksia Rescue Project
The Silver Banksia project started in 2012 with funding from Caring for our Country for 6 years.
Initially there was a shortage of seed to meet the demand.
For the initial 3 years, 2000 Banksias were produced and given to landholders who had expressed interest and had suitable sites.
Now, approximately 5,000 Banksias have been produced for the past 2 years and given to landholders with the right attitude and site suitability