Sowing your seeds: Identifying the seeds

Before sowing your seeds, you need to split them into the three different species. Be careful when doing this as the silver birch seed is very light and can be blown about very easily.

The silver birch seed is light brown and “winged”. They are very different to the alder and Scots pine seeds, both of which resemble what most people would call a seed.

Carefully separate out the silver birch seeds. You will then be left with the alder and Scots pine. Alder is the smaller of the two seeds and usually a lighter (redder) shade. The Scots pine seed is larger and a darker brown.

Don’t worry if you can’t accurately identify the alder and Scots pine seeds – it will soon be obvious which is which as they grow. The Scots pine will be smaller and will eventually have needles rather than leaves.

Next step...

Now click on ‘Making plant pots’ on the left of this page to find out how to make your own plant pots.