Snyder Tree Seeds

08/02/2025

Sometimes a tree is more than just a tree. This was a story on the local news near where I live in Indianapolis 12 years ago. For those wondering, the second tree is gone now too.

https://vimeo.com/64287526?fl=pl&fe=sh&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwL69PNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjGq6hgAyQyWCGbh0jY0e0MA4S31PWF7HIaT-yUlrqhR8syatxJT19qncO9r_aem_enYYlUrmPeXf0ahYzL0Vwg

This is "Commute Curiosity" by Steve Rhodes on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

05/30/2025

Update: Sold out!

I have a bunch of ready-to-plant shellbark hickory and black walnut seed. These were in an outdoor stratification pit. Due to being extremely busy with work responsibilities this spring, I wasn’t able to get them unearthed nearly as early as I should have. As a result, many are already sprouting as you can see. I don’t like to get seed this far along before I sell it. As a result, I’m offering this at a steep discount. My regular price is $17 per pound for hickory and $9 per pound for walnut. The sale price is $10 for hickory and $5 for walnut. If you want large quantities, make me an offer. I have somewhere around 40 lbs of hickory and even more walnut.

Update: Hickory is sold out. Walnut is still available.

04/26/2025

Baby persimmon on the way!

04/11/2025

When it comes to pretty, white spring flowers in the spring, the invasive Callery pear has nothing on our native Ameican Plum (Prunus americana). These typically reach peak bloom just a week or two after Callery pear. As an added bonus, they produce fruits that are small, but are incredibly delicious.

We’re all sold out of American plum seed for the season, however, these flowers give me hope that there will be a good crop later this year.

Photos taken in northern Johnson county, IN 4/11/25.

04/08/2025

Here in central Indiana, some of our fruit trees are starting to bloom (peaches, plums, early pears and apples, etc. Unfortunately, we also have some cold temperatures on the way. The predicted low temperature tonight is 25 degrees F.

Many people are accustomed to think that fruit trees blossoms will be killed by any frost—similar to say tomato plants. The truth is, they are generally more robust than that. Here’s a link to the results of an excellent study out of Michigan State University showing the robustness of different fruit tree blossoms at different stages. If anyone is aware of similar studies with other trees (including non fruit trees), I’d love it if you could share.

03/28/2025

Flower buds on a pawpaw tree on a frosty Indiana morning.

03/17/2025

Trees are our largest native wildflowers. Photos from my Johnson County, IN yard today. On the left is red maple, Acer rubrum. On the right is silver maple, Acer saccharinum.

03/16/2025

Seed acorns are now fully stratified and ready to plant. We have 4 species of acorns left: Shumard (Q. shumardii), Northern Red (Q. rubra), Scarlet (Q. coccinea), and English (Q. robur).

The price is $17 per pound, or $15 per pound if you order 5 lbs or more. Shipping is free for any orders of at least $35.

We also have a variety of other tree seeds available including stratified persimmon, black walnuts, black cherry, bitternut hickory, and a wide variety of other things.

03/14/2025

Maple syrup season is done.

02/24/2025

It’s that time of year when trees can be used to satisfy our sweet tooth--maple sugaring time is here! I tapped a couple trees in my yard in Indiana yesterday, but my setup is a far cry from the much larger operations that I grew up around in north central Pennsylvania. My parents as well as both sets of my grandparents made large quantities of maple syrup to sell. My little operation in my yard is mostly for the purpose of nostalgia. Just one whiff of the sweet steam of maple sap boiling is enough to take me back to cold, moonlit nights in the hills of Pennsylvania when I’d take my shift as the one responsible to feed the hungry wood fire all night long and keep the large steel pans over the fire full of sap. Dad still makes syrup every few years on the same open-air arch that’s been used by our family going all the way back to the days when the sap was brought to be boiled in tanks mounted on horse-drawn sleighs. My maternal grandparents had a more polished arrangement because my grandfather built his own sap house building, complete with a brick firebox. Granny and Papap even had a space in the sap house reserved for the puzzle table where they’d assemble large jigsaw puzzles while passing the time.

The sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum) is the preferred species for making syrup, largely because of the high sugar content. The sap of the sugar maple often has a sugar content in the range of 1.5 to 3.5% sugar, with an average somewhere around 2%. The finished maple syrup product has a sugar content of 66%. It usually takes around 40 gallons of sap to produce each gallon of syrup. The sugar is concentrated by boiling off the majority of water, making syrup-making a very long and energy-intensive process. Other species of maple trees in eastern North America can also be used to make maple syrup, including black maple (Acer nigrum)—regarded by some as a subspecies of sugar maple--, red maple (Acer rubrum), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), and box elder (Acer negundo). Red maple, silver maple, and box elder are rarely used, mostly because the sugar content is lower than sugar and black maple. While much less common, syrup can also be made from other trees including, but not limited to birches, sycamores, and walnuts.

02/19/2025

Here is the updated availability list (as of 2/19/25). Many things are selling out or are starting to get in short supply. The ones in short supply are marked on the list, so if you need those this season, please let me know soon. Please click on the image to make sure that you can view the full list.

02/19/2025

Celtis occidentalis, is a tree in the elm family that is generally known by the common name, hackberry. Despite a common name that is poor for marketing (I mean, “hack” doesn’t sound very appealing), it’s actually a quite attractive and useful tree.

The tree is native throughout much of the Midwest and eastern US, as well as parts of Canada. It’s a quite cold-hardy tree, growing wild even in the harsh, zone 3 winters in regions such as North Dakota. It’s also adaptable up to zone 9 regions in the south. It’s adaptable to a wide range of soils—both acidic and alkaline, dry and wet, sandy and clay. The fact that it’s relatively fast growing and tolerates both pollution and poor quality soils makes it an excellent street tree. It was named the 2020 Urban Tree of the Year by the Society of Municipal Arborists.

One of its most unique features is a distinctive rough, “warty” bark. While “berry” is in the common name, the small, cherry-like fruits are technically drupes. The drupes are a quite valuable food source to a variety of wildlife, especially birds. Wild turkeys, pheasants, grouse, cedar waxwings, robins, and many others relish the sweet fruits. While the flesh is relatively thin, it is edible by humans as well. Archaeological studies suggest that humans have eaten hackberries for thousands of years.

While not considered a premium hardwood, the tree has value for timber. The light, creamy colored wood can be used for furniture and other woodworking.

Cleaned seed is now available for sale at the following prices:
25 for $5
100 for $10
200 for $15
300 for $19
500 for $25
All seed was collected locally here in central Indiana (zone 6a). A wide variety of seed from other species is also available and shipping is free on orders of at least $35.