ALCS Completes Another Fall Seed and Nut Planting
October 12, 2026
“I cannot believe how many years our Fall seed and nut planting has been happening, but here we are, twenty three years and still going strong,” says ALCS president Josh First.
Each summer, Josh collects various tree seeds and nuts, lots and lots of tree seeds and nuts, and then plants them directly, or broadcasts them, in the Fall. Josh also gives away many to loggers, foresters, farmers, and private property owners to plant while they are afield.
“I will stop my truck on the side of a country road in the middle of nowhere to pick up Osage orange “brain fruit” seed pods, or black walnuts, or honey locust pods, or wild apples and crabapples, or Chinese chestnut burrs,” says First. “My truck bed always has a bunch of walnuts and chestnuts rolling around, plus some shriveled wild apples, well into the winter. I also save the pits and cores from the hundreds of peaches and apples that I grow and process every summer, often filling up a chest freezer with them until the season is right to plant them.”
The key is to get tree seeds and nuts into or onto the right ground when leaves are starting to fall, which gives the seed a chance to hide from animals seeking them as nourishment. Or get them into dirt where animals will not be able to easily find them.
“Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I do collect wildflower seeds, as well as tree nuts from all around the east coast, and then plant them around central and northcentral Pennsylvania,” says First. “Johnny Appleseed is my inspiration, though he lived at a time when whitetail deer populations were at their lowest in American history. So his plantings grew in a favorable environment, whereas today we have to fence off everything that we want to prevent overabundant deer from eating. Or overwhelm the deer with massive amounts of growth, so they cannot eat every single thing.”
ALCS encourages everyone to be their own Johnny Appleseed by collecting apple and pear cores, and peach pits from summer meals, or oak acorns rolling around in your driveway at home, and find out of the way places to just toss them, or surreptitiously plant them. Especially when taking afternoon walks or hikes.
“You, we, are the future of healthy wildlife-sustaining forests,” says First. “We cannot leave this work to others. Each of us can plant some seeds or nuts throughout the summer and Fall. If you hunt or hike, take some apple seeds afield with you, poke a hole in the dirt here and there, and drop a seed in, cover it up, and keep on going. Who knows what that seed will do? If enough are planted, eventually some will survive and will grow to bear fruit,” said First.
