I HAVE SEVERAL DIFFERENT VARIEGATED RHAPIS PALMS IN 6 INCH POTS. I NEED 40 C I dATE PALM SEEDLINGS AND am willing to trade. THe phapis plants i have SELL for 75 + dollars each Don HUdson

I have never had to scar the seed just plant it and wait about 30 days.

Peeling off all the fruit is highly recommended before trying to terminate any palm seed. Fruit can rot and fungus can grow and hurt the chances for the seed to sprout. I've had my best luck from seeds that dropped and the fruit was already gone by the time i found the seeds. Soak the stone (it should look wrinkled) for 24 hrs in warm water, changing the water a few times. Plant in a good potting soil mix in small pots or six pack annual trays. Cover with plastic wrap and keep warm. They sprout really quickly.

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I ran across it when I was looking for tips on growing date palms. I'm not concerned with getting fruit; if I do, and it happens to be "quality" eating fruit-- whee! That's a bonus! I just wanted to try planting a few pits just to see what would come up. So, I planted 7 pits and 6 have sprouted so far. By that, I mean that the first seed leaves are emerging and are now about an inch tall on the biggest ones, and growing noticeably every day. I soaked the seeds for 2 days, then placed them in medium in a baggie on my water heater for about 10 days. But, I tend to be forgetful so I moved then to pots on a warm sunny windowsill where I would see them and not forget them. I just kept the soil moist to the touch but not soggy, and now 6 have the green shoot. It took about 6 weeks or so to get this far, but they look vigorous as far as I can tell. It's heading into the late spring and rather warm days (almost 90 now) so I think they can go out to the patio for morning sun/afternoon filtered light. As long as I keep them just moist to touch-- not soggy, not parched-- I'm hoping that they'll continue to grow into a cool looking conversation piece to keep my pineapple plant company (also started from grocery store fruit for the fun of it, more than the actual fruit). That pineapple plant is a cool looking plant, BTW, and it was basically "free", other than the 99 cents that I spent for the pineapple that I ate to get the top as an afterthought experiment! Most of my cool plants are freebies that I grew from 'found' seeds or from fruit that I bought at the store, or from pinchings or volunteer seedlings of things that I found on a bike ride or a walk, or that I got from or traded with someone else -- I'm just a cheap bastage, LOL!! These pits? From a snack of dates that I bought from a bin at the organic grocer when I was on a bike ride... "Hmmm, I wonder if I can plant these pits?" Answer: "Yes!" Hopefully, I'll have some pretty palm plants in a few years. :)