8 DEPARTMENT BULLETIN, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



been removed, the surplus moisture should be drained from the 

 seeds. They should then be stored and protected from heat and 

 drying, or they may be stratified in sand and kept in a cool, moist 

 place. Regardless of which method is used, the seeds should be 

 stratified in moist sand in a warm place 3 or 4 weeks before they 

 are to be put into the ground. Where greenhouse space is available, 

 and the seeds are to be stratified in large quantities, a layer of sand 

 about 2 inches deep may be spread on a bench having bottom heat. 

 A piece of burlap should then be spread over the sand, and this, in 

 turn, should be covered with a very thin layer of sand on which t he- 

 seeds are spread in a thin layer and barely covered with sand. Over 

 this another piece of burlap is spread and covered with about an 

 inch of sand. The sand should be kept moist but not wet and at a 

 temperature of about 70° F. Where this method is used, it is pos- 

 sible to stratify a large quantity of seeds and still be able to examine 

 them from time to time by lifting one side of the upper piece of 

 burlap. 



If smaller quantities of seed are to be stratified, boxes of suitable 

 size can be used and put in a warm place. After 2 or 3 weeks the 

 seeds should be examined carefully every day or two, and as soon as 

 they begin to crack open they should be placed in nursery rows. 

 They should be sown in the row close enough together to form an 

 almost continuous row of seed and covered with not more than l 1 /^ 

 inches of moist soil. Seeds that have been stratified in sand between 

 strips of burlap can be screened from the sand, or the sand and seed 

 can be drilled in the rows without screening. 



The stratified seeds should not be submitted to heat too soon, or it 

 may be necessary to plant them outside before the soil is thoroughly 

 warmed. If cold weather follows after planting them outside, losses 

 will occur because of the shock occasioned by taking the seeds from 

 the warm sand bed and exposing them to cold. After planting, the 

 soil should be kept pulverized above the seed to keep it from baking. 

 When the young seedlings first appear, they are rather delicate and 

 are often injured by having to push through a hard crust. The 

 soil can be kept moist and open by covering the rows with a thin 

 layer of straw, rice hulls, or some other mulch. The seeds should 

 not have more than 1 to 1% inches of soil over them, and care should 

 be exercised not to use a mulch deep enough to keep the soil cool and 

 thus retard germination. 



The seed can be held over winter and planted without stratifi- 

 cation when the soil has been thoroughly warmed in the spring, 

 but when planted in this way the percentage of germination will 

 not be so great as when stratification is employed and the seeds are 

 handled as noted above. The jujube requires heat at all stages of its 

 development. 



If the quantity of seeds is not too great, they can be planted in 

 beds instead of rows, thus insuring better care and a larger stand 

 than under the row system. At the end of the first -season s growth 

 the majority of the seedlings grown from seeds planted in nursery 

 rows are large enough to graft, while only a small percentage of 

 those grown in beds are of suitable size. The unsuitable plants 

 from the beds should be grown 4 to 6 inches apart in rows during 

 the second season. 



