Direct seeding native Pine

The forecast was for it to rain buckets in early August 2020, so we put in 5km of direct seeding trail using native Pine seed.

Normally direct seeding is done after the Autumn break, and we did 15km of trail in May 2020. But I forgot to sow some of the Pine so we thought we'd try some winter sowing as well.

I love this direct-seeder. It's modified from a rabbit bait layer. There's a disc to scalp a trench, then a tube that drizzles seed in from the hopper, then the ticklers which throw the dirt back over the seed, and finally the press wheel to push down the soil so the ants don't steal the seed. All done whilst you drive along!

The direct seeder, and the trail of freshly sown seed.

• First published 6 August 2020

• Update 2021 - Well, I can’t really say the 2020 La Nina event really delivered in the northern Mallee. We had 282mm of rain, which is still below our average of 300m per year. The Pine direct seeding didn’t really get going, but we’re hopeful for the negative Indian Ocean dipole producing good winter rains in 2021. One of the great things about direct seeding is that some seed can germinate years after sowing.