Simple way to germinate horse chestnut conkers to grow more trees!

We have a wonderful old horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) that makes loads of seeds called ‘conkers’. We want to grow these conkers so that we can have lots more horse chestnut trees. This year we are cold stratifying the conkers in an unheated outbuilding to protect them from frost.
The cold during the winter will encourage them to sprout in the spring. They will also need protection from mice and to keep the moisture content right. So, we are cold stratifying them in a tumble dryer drum in a shed.
We are trying to be as self-sufficient and off grid as possible on our smallholding, our English homestead, with a little help from Hazel, our pup.

[@emmaslow]

This year I'm trying to stratify sweet chestnuts and oaks in my fridge. Good luck to us both!

[@theviewfromtheclouds]

Sounds like a good plan - let me know if it works for you!

[@garymaxwell3086]

Glad to see someone trying to grow horse chestnut. I've personally had mixed success with them in Scotland. Any you can get to grow will appreciate the tree guards you salvaged in your previous video. I've found that rodents will go for the seed right up until they have established a root system. Seems that the store of nutrients in the seed is still appreciated by the rodents right up until there is better food to forage in the summer. I'd recommend looking at air prune boxes to let them grow a couple years before planting out. Sean at Edible Acres on KZbin has some amazing videos on these.

[@theviewfromtheclouds]

I will have a look at his videos - thanks for the info.