Patty, yes the trees get all the measly chill hours South Florida has, since the trees are outside. My adult tree already shed all its leaves in September, and lost most of the new ones in hurricane Wilma last month.But they are coming back again. The Atemoya and Sugar Apple trees are still leafy. I have to hand pull the leaves from my Sugar Apple trees in Dec/January since they don't drop them all themselves. Same with regular Apple trees- it just doesn't get cold enough for long enough to make them shed cleanly. I don't know why the Cherimoya shed so early. Possibly the dry conditions caused it. BFreeman- the question was answered.. What makes your method the best? It takes a lot longer than the way I do it-what is the benefit? Are the seedlings healthier if they take longer to germinate? Lisa

I soak the seeds anywhere from a few hours to overnight. The seeds will sprout in just about any type of mix. I keep the soil lightly moist and use bottom heat unless it's summer, then I just stick the tray outside. I just put the seed head below the soil and keep the wing exposed. I occasionally get seedlings that won't shed their seed coat. First I try misting to see if that will loosen it. If that's unsuccessful I take two straight pins and carefully peel the seed coat away. Sometimes I end up decapitating the seedling but it usually works if you're careful. If the seeds are fresh I get almost 100% germination. That number goes down for older seeds though I've had decent germination with year old seeds that weren't stored in the best conditions. Most viable seeds will sprout within 2 weeks. Karyn

I had miraculous results with lillikoi (P. edulis flavicarpa) seeds my friend gave me from Hawaii that were a year and a half old and stored encased in some masking tape :) I scraped one long edge of each seed with fine sandpaper (220 or so) several times until I felt like I had almost scraped all the way through the outer shell. I then soaked the seeds in a small amount (1.5 tablespoons or so of each ) of fresh squeezed orange juice and strong black tea. I placed them in a small plastic souffle cup on a heat mat in a sunny window where the liquid proceeded to evaporate. After about 24 hours the liquid had been reduced to almost a syrup, and I added enough water to get it back to the original amount. After 48 hours I planted the seeds about a half inch deep in half miracle grow seedling starter mix and half perlite, and encased the container in a large bag with the top slightly open to trap the humidity, and placed this on the heat mat in the sunny window. Because it was so hot over the week (sunny, humid and around high of 95F) I checked the soil temp and it was around 97F so I stopped putting the heat mat on during the day, and only put it on at night. Then over the weekend, I went on vacation and accidentally left the heat mat on during the day. When I came back from vacation, one of the seeds (a year and a half old!) had already sprouted.... this was only 7 days after planting!!! Within 3 days, two more had sprouted. I am not sure if these results were because flavicarpa is particularly hardy and vigorous, if there is something about storing them stuck between masking tape that preserves viability, or if it was the pre-treatment effects and warm soil that made them so viable, but whatever the factor, I am pretty pleased with this ultra fast germination and wanted to share in case anyone else can use this info :)

The water and toothpicks was just a novelty, they germinate very easily any way. I used to throw them into the garden and had them sprouting. Now I freeze them first so as not to get seedlings everywhere.