Help! Do I have to remove the new pale green maple keys from the new soil so they won’t germinate?
We are having new sod put down. At the moment the old sod is off, the ground is levelled and new top soil (triple mix) is down. A local maple tree has just dumped pale green keys all over the new soil. I have trouble with the brown keys that fall in the autumn germinating and growing all throughout the gardens and lawns. I don’t know about these pale green early ones whether they can germinate and make problems for me even after the new sod is put down. It seems the maples have several cycles in a season. First the flowers and three/four pronged red stems, then the small pale green keys, then the green leaves which later turn colour and fall along with the brown keys that do germinate and pop up every spring all over the lawns and gardens.
Each species of maple has a specific time of year that their seeds mature and drop. The keys are constructed to be easily dispersed by the wind so if you live in a well treed area, the keys from several species may end up in your yard.
The early, pale green keys which are smaller than the brown ones that appear in autumn may be immature keys. In this case although some may germinate most likely will not. Green keys that stay on the tree will mature and drop later in the year. It would be difficult to remove the green small keys before laying the sod. Instead simply mow over any that sprout after the sod has been laid and the grass has grown long enough to cut.