Overview
- Researchers at the John Innes Centre report in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research an embryo extraction technique that cuts ash seed germination from years in nature to about a week in the lab.
- The process lifts the embryo from the hard seed coat and grows it on agar, producing transplant-ready seedlings in roughly 14 days.
- The approach has already yielded more than 2,000 seedlings for trials and helped establish a seed orchard at the Wendling Beck nature recovery site in Norfolk.
- The team plans a simple home “kitchen method” so volunteers, landowners, and gardeners can use household supplies to propagate ash from seed.
- Seed-grown stock preserves genetic diversity and taps the 5–10% of trees that show dieback resistance, which matters as UK losses could reach up to 80% and a further threat comes from emerald ash borer.