How to grow Madagascar Palm from seed

diaszabo

15 years ago

Hi all,

Please give advice how to grow pachypodium ( madagascar palm) from seed, I purchased 5 seeds.

what kind of medium ?

How to sow the seed on the soil , covered or uncovered with soil?

Should be covered to increase humidity?

need full sun or just bright ?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (3)

xerophyte NYC
15 years ago
Medium should be light, porous and well aerated. There are so many formulas out there that would work depending on what you have or have access to. For starters, a pre-bagged "cactus" mix with perlite added to make up about 1/3 of the volume will be OK until the seedlings would need to be transplanted.

You can soak the seeds for a few hours in warm water first, then plant them on the surface and lightly sprinkle some mix on top. Keep the pots sealed for about 48 hrs in plastic. Open the seal a couple times daily if possible to let some fresh air inside. The biggest enemy is mold and fungus. A fungicide in advance helps prevent it.

Full sun is not needed in the beginning, bright light is adequate.

Do a google search for "growing adenium from seed". The instructions are essentially the same as for Pachys.

Fresh seed germinates quickly (within a few days). Old seed may not germinate at all. Temps in excess of 80oF seem to lead to quicker germination.

In my opinion, unless you are sowing hybrid seed and are curious about the outcome, or you are sowing in masses for commercial purposes, I think money is better spent on buying some seedlings - all the work is done for you, you don't have to worry about failure and they are not expensive.

Good luck!

x
diaszabo
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi Xero,

Thanks for detail explanations , high appreciated.
well, I bought seeds from ebay , they dont arrived yet , it is coming from Australia.
I have pachy seedling which I bought in nursery. now i would like to try from seed.

is that difficult to keep pachypodium? some of my pachy's leaves turned yellow and falled :(
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Joe, I live in the Myrtle Beach area also (Murrells Inlet). I have been growing different types of palms from seed for a while now. The trouble with palms are that the fast growing ones are not native to this area thus they have many problems such as cold in winter months, too humid in summer months. I would still recommend the washingtonia robusta (mexican fan palm), or the washingtonia filifera (california fan palm) they are the 2 fastest growing palms for this area with the robusta being the fastest. However the robusta is more sensitive to the cold so you must be prepared to protect it, especially while it is young, (would make a nice container palm for a couple of years). Now the filifera is more cold tolerant than the robusta but you need to remember it grows in a dry arid climate so it struggles with funggal attacks while it is young in our hot humid climate we have. The filifera grows somewhat slower than the robusta and you will still need to offer some protection while it is young from both cold and humidity. Pindo's grow slow but will not be hurt by our cold and after some time they can get to 20' tall. Sabal's are easy to grow from seed as well but will take some time to look like a palm. I am not an expert just some stuff that I have picked up from this board, I hope it helps. David Stallard
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amccour
15 years ago
"is that difficult to keep pachypodium? some of my pachy's leaves turned yellow and falled :( "

They're deciduous, or a lot of them are, so that might be why.

Anyway, I just sprouted some seeds. Three ended up being viable, although one got too dry after I moved it to its own pot and died, so... don't let the seedlings dry out till they get some size on them, I guess. At least not till the cotelydons are free.

All of my seeds that germinated germinated in less than a week. Most took three days.

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How to grow Madagascar Palm from seed

Comments (3)

xerophyte NYC

diaszabo
Original Author

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How to grow Madagascar Palm from seed

Comments (3)

xerophyte NYC

diaszaboOriginal Author

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amccour

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diaszabo
Original Author