How to soak pine cones to open them up?

Soak the pinecones in a warm bucket of water with half cup vinegar, this is for debugging them, let sit 15-20 minutes. Now to get the pine cones to open - preheat your oven to 200degrees, line a cookie sheet with foil, add pinecones, leave in oven for 30 minutes. Remove and let them continue to dry oven night.

.They should be put in an oven at 200F until you see them open. This is why evergreens grow back so quickly after a fire. The fire opens the cones thus releasing the seeds

https://makeanddocrew.com/how-to-clean-pine-cones-for-crafts-see-ya-bugs/

I had to laugh at this one! After spending hours picking up the "best of the best" pine cones, I worked for hours dipping at least a bushel of them in vinegar water to get rid of the bugs, then laid them out on the porch on a cloth to dry. The next day, they had all closed up! I nearly fainted.

My sister-in-law laughed at me and said they had to be "set" by heating them in the oven.

Lay the cones out on trays. Heat the oven to 200 degrees, set them inside and let them bake for about an hour...but I checked them every 10 minutes just to be safe.

Here is a photo of my pine cone wreath. Use those heavy yellow kitchen gloves when handling pine cones...it is like working with stickers! LOL

pinecone open when they are dry