It is a Mast Year but are those beech seeds you have collected viable?

#Beech #Seed #Viability
This yearr (2022) is a mast year (year of high fruit/seed production) for many deciduous trees, not least the beech, in England. However, the appearance of vast quantities of fruit of the trees may be deceptive as the nuts inside may not be viable. The very hot and dry August we have had around the UK has probably caused problems for big users of water, such as beech, and I suspected that many trees would not have been able to fill their seeds. Here I take a look to find out as I start collecting seeds to hopefully produce a few little beech trees next year. Notably, it seems that some trees are likely to be much better than others although, even then, there are far more empty (sterile) seeds than potentially viable ones.