Germinating needle palm seeds

15 years ago

My little needle palm surprised me with big ugly flowers this summer, one of which produced 10 seeds. I took those seeds, soaked them and then planted them in moist soil, which I put in closed ziploc-like containers and put in a cupboard with a desk lamp. It is about 95-100 degrees in there all the time.

It's been THREE MONTHS, and thus far, nothing, but I have read that needle palm seeds take forever to germinate. Anyone else done this? Have I ruined them? Or is there still hope>

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Comments (4)

bubba62
15 years ago
I've not grown needle palms from seed (I have two that I planted out from one gallon pots, and I'll be dead long before they reach shoulder height!), but Trachys and Sabals have taken up to 6 months for me, so I wouldn't give up yet.
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JohnnieB
15 years ago
I grew needle palms from seed several years ago. Yes they do take forever (6-12 months or even more) but if your plant only produced flowers this summer, then there is no way that the seeds were ripe by August. One of my own needle palms, grown from those seeds, also surprised me with flowers this year (late June, I believe) but the seeds are still green and don't look anywhere near ripe yet.
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You have two totally different types of seeds because one is a palm and one is a cycad. If I had to guess, I'd say it is too late for both types. I can't tell the difference in palm seeds on viability, but I can tell about cycads. Since the seeds have not been kept moist or protected in any way, I'd just give them the float test. Throw them in a bucket of water and see if any float, which most likely, all or most all of them will. You have a chance with any that sink. If you have a lot of the sago seeds, you can cut one in half, along the natural seems of the seed and look to see how bad off they are. If you have lots of them, cutting a couple gives you a real good idea of what you are dealing with.
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Jim, I am really trying to like this palm! I spied a nice specimen in a local garden center (not a bad price at all--under $30.00). I didn't get it last week because I have a smaller one and it just doesn't seem to do anything. I know they need heat (and this has been a cool summer so far in the East), but heck, I get better growth on a lot of other more tropical species and this is no different from my experience with it other summers. In fact, I have MUCH better growth (this year) on some Sabals (texana, louisiana, even palmetto) Thinking of going back tomorrow to reconsider. First time I have ever seen this being sold locally. They were also selling another "cold hardy palm" and I'm ashamed to say, I couldn't recognize it, and it had no label other than being sold as COLD HARDY.. It had smaller silver, reddish fan leaves. May have been a cultivar of Serenoa repens or Chamaerops?? So far, my in the ground palms have been limited to T. fortunei--which I love. But I have to say, needles seem hard to love--and those NEEDLES do not help!!
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drtdauber
15 years ago
I received a packet of 10 needle palm seeds (R. hystrix) from rarepalmseeds on November 4th. Soaked the seeds for 3 days in warm water with change of water each day and scapping off any husk material as it softened up. Put the seeds in barely-moist vermiculite in a flip top sandwich bag, and then inside a ziplock with a few other species treated the same way. The bags sat at room temp a couple of days before I remembered the top of the TV cable box stays consistently warm (28 degrees C), so moved the bags there on Nov. 10. Yesterday, (11/16/08) was checking on Sable minor seeds (in the same ziplock)...and thought, "why not check the rest"...found one R.hystrix seed germinated with about a 1/2 radicle developed! I had planned on at least 30 days for them and it was less than a week at warm temp. Encouraging!
These results may not be typical, and I may not get any more to germinate...also, I don't know how rarepalmseeds stored them or how long, so there may be some mechanism of storage or cold that helped to break their dormancy...
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katrina1
15 years ago
My Sabel Minor seeds from Rarepalmseeds, germinated when I planted them in dampened vermiculite and a plastic container with a lid. Almost 6 weeks ago I soaked these seeds, put them in the container and set it on top of my refrigerator.

Even at my keeping them at room temperature I found today that 8 of them had sprouted with an average of an almost 1 inch tall white headless spear looking sprout.

During the same time frame, only one of my Fortuni Windmill palm seeds sprouted. I have them planted in vermiculite, but they are in a clear zip lock baggie instead of the a zip lock jar type.

I did get some needle palm seeds from them also, but have not planted them. These are still in their original package. Hopefully, I did not kill these seeds by not doing anything with them yet.
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Germinating needle palm seeds

Comments (4)

bubba62

JohnnieB

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drtdauber

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