Did you know that many trees do not produce seed every year – and years of abundant seed are often known as “mast years”…
…originally used for described great harvests of Beech or Oak seed https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2017/10/autumn-is-back/ .
This fluctuation of seed probably enables a balance in nature, but for people growing trees commercially it can mean that local seed is not available in certain years (it is now thought that ideally seed should have local provenance – i.e. any tree grown from seed in a nursery is best planted within the defined region that the seed was collected from).
To help us with our own tree supply for future planting – we are considering developing seed collections and growing the trees on ourselves. Whilst this is just in the planning phase, we would be interested in anyone who has spare acorns or other seed of broadleaf trees, to get in touch with us at hello@livingwoodsnortheast.org.uk