Are your woods bountiful with seeds and cones, and you want to make some extra cash? If yes, the Minnesota State Forest Nursery needs your help to grow future forests. We are very interested in buying seeds and cones from the following trees:
- Black spruce
- White spruce
- Jack pine
- Red pine
- Tamarack
- Red oak
- White oak
- Bur oak
- Swamp oak
- Sugar maple
Most of these seeds and cones will be ready to harvest starting the end of August through October. We need ripe, unopened cones with very little green color and ripe acorns without the cap attached. The majority of ripe seeds and cones fall to the ground.
Acorns will need to be soaked in water long enough for the hollow acorns to float to the top. Remove hollow acorns before selling them.
Be sure to prevent cones, seeds, and acorns from heating up.
Please note the county and township where you collected seeds and cones. This helps us return the seedlings we grow back to the region where the seeds were collected.
If you don’t have your own woods, you can collect seeds and cones from Minnesota State Forests. Your local forester can suggest good areas to collect seeds and cones.
Visit the Seed Collection webpage for a list of tree seeds and cones being collect by DNR forestry offices.
For instructions on collecting seeds and cones check out
Thanks, Minnesota State Forest Nursery staff
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | mndnr.gov
Email us: info.dnr@state.mn.us | Call 651-296-6157 or 888-646-6367
